KIEV, Oct. 29 - Jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko launched a hunger strike on Monday to protest against alleged vote-rigging in favor of President Viktor Yanukovych's party in this weekend’s election.

Exit polls and partial results from Sunday's vote showed Yanukovych's Regions Party would, with help from long-time allies, win more than half the seats in the 450-member assembly.

The united opposition bloc, which includes Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna, or Fatherland, party, was second with about 100 seats, according to preliminary estimates.

But Tymoshenko, who had warned before the vote that the Regions' victory would lead to "dictatorship", does not accept the figures, her lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko said.