Ukraine picks parliament in key democracy test

Ukranian voters go to the polls Sunday for legislative elections set to test democracy under President Viktor Yanukovych, as jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is forced to observe from the sidelines. The election for seats in Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has also been shaken up by the political emergence of boxing star Vitali Klitschko and former international footballer Andriy Shevchenko. The ex-Soviet nation of 46 million people, nestled between the European Union and Russia, is holding its first election since Tymoshenko lost to rival Yanukovych in a bitterly-fought contest in 2010. The firebrand 2004 Orange Revolution leader was jailed less than two years later on abuse of power charges brought by Yanukovych's Regions Party, in a move seen by Tymoshenko and Western nations as a vendetta on the part of the president. Opinion polls suggest that Yanukovych's alliance with the Communist Party and a top centrist politician will secure a narrow victory over Tymoshenko's opposition bloc. But in hot pursuit in third is the UDAR (Punch) party headed by world boxing champion Klitschko -- and a long-mooted alliance with the opposition bloc could swing the parliamentary majority away from the ruling party. Klitschko, a sporting superstar in Ukraine along with his younger brother and fellow heavyweight champion Wladimir, is a furious critic of the ruling authorities. Having served on Kiev city council he is now seeking a national role. "I am confident that we will be able to gather all the opposition forces around us in the new parliament," the reigning heavyweight champion boldly predicted in an interview with a German newspaper on the eve of the vote. An alliance between UDAR and the Tymoshenko bloc could give the opposition a parliamentary majority and limit Yanukovych's political options. Half of the 450 seats will be filled by voters casting ballots for parties that have to clear a five percent minimum vote threshold. The remainder are filled by individual candidates who must win their districts to get in. The vote was preceded by an extremely rare joint letter from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy boss Catherine Ashton calling on Yanukovych to prove his democratic credentials to the world. The question of whether he will lose his ruling majority depends largely on whether Klitschko -- assuming the dominant role of kingmaker -- follows through on his promise to work with Tymoshenko's team. The ambitious political novice has thus far refused to dismiss the notion of himself one day running for president. He has also made a much bigger impression on voters than fellow sports star "Sheva" Shevchenko -- a hero not only in Ukraine but also in Italy where he was an AC Milan star for eight years. The fleet-footed former forward is the deputy head of the Ukraine Forward! movement. Polls, however, show it picking up no more than three percent of the vote. "The results (of the vote) could shape the presidential ambitions of the incumbent as well as the leaders of the disparate opposition ahead of the 2015 (presidential) election," a spokesman for US-based IHS Global Insight said.