KIEV, Oct. 31 - A more polarized Ukraine has emerged from local elections on Sunday with an ultra-nationalist party winning three western regions and pro-government party crushing rivals in eastern regions, exit polls suggest.

The elections of local councils and mayors across Ukraine is the first test of democracy coming seven months after the election of Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian figure, to the presidency in February.

The results of the Yanukovych policies show the split within the country has been deepening with Svoboda, the ultra-nationalist party, easily defeating rivals in three big western regions of Ukraine.

The elections also showed the Regions Party, Yanukovych’s group, has been cementing its presence through much of the rest of Ukraine, mostly in central and eastern regions, with opposition groups accusing the authorities of manipulation and fraud.

“A very sad conclusion is that Ukraine has failed the test of democracy,” Oleksandr Turchynov, who coordinated election campaigns for Batkivshchyna, Ukraine’s largest opposition group. “If Ukrainian and international communities swallow this like nothing has happened, these will be the last elections in which opposition groups [will be able to] participate.”

Batkivshchyna, led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was forced to boycott the elections in Lviv, its stronghold, after claiming the authorities had hijacked the local party branch and had nominated candidates local to the authorities.

Svoboda emerged victorious in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions, that had played the most active role in the uprising against election fraud in November 2004, known as the Orange Revolution.

Svoboda scored 34.2% of the vote in the elections to the Lviv city council, 32% of the vote to the Ternopil city council and 31.3% of the vote to the Ivano-Frankivsk city council, according to the exit poll by Research & Branding Group.

The Regions Party dominated opponents mostly everywhere else, including scoring 60.6% of the vote in its stronghold of the Donetsk city and 29.2% of the vote to the Odessa city council, according to Research & Branding Group.

Another exit poll, conducted by Savik Shuster Studios, a television talk show, indicates the Regions Party won 43.3% of the vote in Dnipropetrovsk region, 40.1% in the Kharkiv region, 46.9% in Zaporizhia region and 29.2% in Chernihiv region.

“The biggest sensation today is that there is no sensation,” Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, the leader of the Regions Party, said at a press conference. “The exit polls show the people trust the policy of the president, the policy of the government, the policy of the coalition.”

Overall, the Regions Party scored 36.2% of the vote throughout Ukraine, followed by Batkivshchyna’s 13.1% and with the opposition party Front of Changes scoring 6.8%, according to the GfK Ukraine, a polling agency.

Other parties showing strength nationally included the Communist Party with 5.9% of the vote, Svoboda with 5.1% and the Strong Ukraine, a party led by deputy prime minister Serhiy Tyhypko, with 4.3%, according to the Gfk Ukraine.

Our Ukraine, led by former President Viktor Yushchenko, showed serious weakness through most of the country and needs a new strategy and aggressive promotion in order to survive as a mainstream political group.

Our Ukraine scored 2.3% of the vote nationally and needs to energize its supporters within the next year or two in order to be able to clear 3%-threshold to enter Parliament at the general election due in 2012. (tl/ez)