KIEV (Sputnik) — The polls opened at 8.00 a.m. local time (06:00 GMT) and will close at 8.00 p.m. (18:00 GMT). Some 69 percent of all eligible voters are expected to cast their ballots.
The two front-runners of elections are the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party headed by the Ukrainian president and the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics will not participate in the elections. Previously the republics planned to hold their elections before October 25, but later agreed to postpone them until 2016.
The elections will be observed by over 1,500 international participants.
The vote count will be finished by November 4 and the results of the local elections in Ukraine should be published within five days.
