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Ukrainians in Moscow Flock to Vote in Parliamentary Elections

Turnout at the polling station in Moscow for Ukraine's snap parliamentary elections Sunday topped the previous vote, an election official said.

In total, 406 people had cast their ballots in the Russian capital four hours before the vote's end, 30 more than in 2012, station head Viktor Girzhov was cited by RIA Novosti as saying.

Another 104 bungled the paperwork required to vote in Russia and were not allowed to fill in a ballot paper, he said.

Girzhov forecasted the final turnout in Moscow at about 500. Updated figures were unavailable as of this article's publication.

The Verkhovna Rada vote comes after months of political turmoil, the ousting of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in February amid street violence, Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March and a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine, which NATO and official Kiev say is backed by Moscow. The Kremlin denies the allegations.

Twenty-nine parties were competing in the vote, expected to boost the grip on power of pro-Western president Petro Poroshenko.

A government-run website tracking violation reports counted 2,850 vote-related offenses as of this article's publication.

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