Ukraine Exit Polls: Ruling Coalition Clings On Without Gains

In spite of rock-bottom approval ratings, President Petro Poroshenko’s coalition seems to have clung onto power in Ukraine after Sunday’s local elections, according to the first exit polls, but without gaining any new ground as hoped.

The elections were seen as a test for Poroshenko’s pro-Western government, and for his prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, whose approval ratings were reported at a few percentage points above zero. Yatsenyuk's People's Front party, which was formed in 2014, is not fielding any candidates because of its low popularity.

While the Central Election Committee will likely not release complete results until Nov. 4, the Associated Press reported that four exit polls indicate little will change in the west and center of the country.

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The eastern separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk will hold their elections next year. The AP reports that in areas in this region, known as the Donbass, where government forces have retaken rebel-held areas, former separatists ran as candidates from the opposition bloc.

As of Monday, just 30 percent of electoral data had made it to the committee from the 10,700 local councils and mayors from over 130 parties.

What is already known, according to the AP, is that in the capital Kiev and several other big cities, none of the mayoral candidates achieved the minimum number of votes needed to win, so there will be runoff elections on Nov. 15.

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One of the biggest problems for Ukraine’s elections was in port city Mariupol. Although it is in the Donbass, it is not controlled by rebels. However, the presence in the city of Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who supports the Opposition Bloc, influenced the elections in a different way. Voting there was cancelled when the local electoral commission refused ballots printed by one of Akhmentov’s companies.

WATCH: Richard Seymour reviews media coverage of events in Ukraine