Prague/Kiev - The success of Ukraine's ultranationalist Freedom party was probably the biggest surprise of the country's parliamentary election on Sunday.
According to official data, the party was also very successful among expatriate Ukrainians, winning the biggest share of the vote (23.64 percent) in Ukraine's 116 overseas electoral districts. The ruling Party of Regions won 23.27 percent of the oversea vote, roughly 70 votes less.
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that the electoral turnout of Czech-based Ukrainians was "exceptionally low." Of the total number of roughly 10,500 Ukrainian voters registered in Prague and Brno, only about 10 percent cast their votes.
Officially, there are 117,000 Ukrainians living and working in the Czech Republic. Ukrainian ambassador in Prague Ivan Hrycak estimates the real number at 200,000.
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According to Prague-based Ukrainian psychologist Rostislav Prokopyuk, the low voter turnout in the Czech Republic is an outcome of the suppression of the opposition in Ukraine.
Prokopyuk, who has been living in the Czech capital for more than ten years, added that he voted for ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko's opposition Fatherland party.
According to the Ukrainian media, the Freedom party received 350 votes in the Czech Republic, followed by the Punch party led by famous boxer Vitaly Klitschko, which won 345 votes. Fatherland party gained 256 votes, and only 57 people voted for the ruling Party of Regions.
According to Prokopyuk, the Freedom party was successful among expatriates because its organization is present abroad.
"People are aware of its activities in the Czech Republic," said Prokopyuk.
Tymoshenko, whose husband Oleksandr was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic last year, enjoys significant support among expatriate Ukrainians, said Prokopyuk.
"People do not want to vote for the Party of Regions, which forced them to leave their own country."
The Freedom party, led by Lvov doctor Oleg Tiagnibok, praises the legacy of Ukrainian radical nationalist such as Stepan Bandera, a controversial World War Two guerrilla leader.
The party says it wants to ban the communist ideology, abolish the autonomous status of the pro-Russian Crimean Peninsula, and transform Ukraine into a nuclear power.
