KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 (Bernama) -- Ukrainians in Malaysia have casted their votes for the 2019 Ukraine Parliamentary Elections at the embassy here on Sunday, from 8am to 8pm.
Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, the 2019 Parliamentary Elections were pushed forward after newly-inaugurated President Volodymyr Zelensky dissolved the parliament.
The embassy, in a statement on Monday, said 52 out of 102 registered voters residing in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Pahang, Penang, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak participated in the democratic exercise.
Currently, there are some 500 Ukrainian citizens living in Malaysia, mainly comprising students, businessmen, those married to Malaysian citizens and also those married to citizens of other countries working in Malaysia.
The Ukraine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur has conducted parliamentary and presidential elections since its establishment in 2002.
Ukrainian citizens overseas that have voted in the parliamentary elections at 102 Ukraine embassies and consulates around the world - including in Malaysia - counts among the 30 million eligible voters of Ukraine.
Under the current law, 225 out of 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) are elected by nationwide party-list proportional representation with five per cent electoral election threshold.
Twenty-two political parties take part in the election in the nationwide party-list. The total amount of the candidates registered by the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Ukraine is 5,966, including 2,746 of those in the party list. MP mandates are distributed among electoral lists of parties in proportion to the number of received votes.
Meanwhile, members for the other 225 seats will be chosen through constituencies with a first-past-the-post (so-called single-mandate constituencies) electoral system in one round (candidate with the highest vote total wins).
Twenty-six constituencies out of these 225 are suspended due to the March 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and the occupation of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions (since April 2014), the statement added.
The CEC will establish the election results no later than on the fifteenth day from the voting day to determine the winners that will form the government for the next five years.
-- BERNAMA