Bruised by War, Poroshenko Faces Big Election Test

He has been tormented by a bloody pro-Russian uprising and the near-bankruptcy of his young but bitterly conflicted former Soviet state.

Now President Petro Poroshenko's success in handling both crises will be tested when Ukrainians pick a new parliament that could make or break his post-war revival plans.

A dizzying 29 parties made the ballot by the Tuesday night registration deadline for the October 26 polls.

Most surveys show the president's uninventively monikered Petro Poroshenko Bloc on pace to claim roughly a quarter of the seats in the 450-member chamber.

Hot on his heels are a colorful band of nationalists -- dubbed the "party of war" by critics in Moscow -- who together could derail the president's high-wire act of making peace with Russia while merging with the West.

But little encapsulates the scale of changes that have swept over Ukraine in the past year of revolutionary fervor and wartime ruin more than the demise of pro-Kremlin forces that once dominated politics.

The Regions Party of Viktor Yanukovych -- an unpopular leader who fled to Russia after riot police gunned down 100 protesters in February -- was facing the prospect of scoring just two percent before it decided to "boycott" the race.

The former ruling party's support all but vanished when Moscow annexed Crimea and began backing separatist revolts in the country's industrial east.

The president has an Achille's Heel: many feel his vow to crush the pro-Russian insurgents has instead turned into a military fiasco that forced Kiev to sue for peace with Moscow.

His biggest weapon may come in the towering shape of former heavyweight boxing champion and current Kiev mayor Vitali Klitschko.

The sporting hero will top Poroshenko's election list and be tasked with portraying a tough-guy image similar to the one mastered in Russia by President Vladimir Putin -- a judo black belt.

"We take it as a given that Ukraine must be transformed into a military power," the president's deputy chief of staff said in September.

Poroshenko -- an affable chocolate tycoon with an innate feel for Western business -- is on stronger ground with the economy. He will campaign on his ability to strike a historic EU alliance and secure $27 billion (21 billion euros) in global aid that could break the country's reliance on Russia.

Others are taking an even tougher line on Russia.

"We are going to simply not pay any of our Russian debts. This will be our punishment for their aggression," Radical Party leader Oleg Lashko promised voters.

The brash former journalist is the most popular of an array of right-wing forces that are trying to tap into voters' frustration with Poroshenko's failure to defeat the rebels.

Lashko is expected to secure around 10 percent of the vote which would put him just ahead of the similarly militant Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party of Yulia Tymoshenko and the People's Front of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Tymoshenko is the bruised warrior of Ukrainian politics whose once iconic status as leader of a previous revolution has been tarnished by corruption allegations.

This trio of charismatic opposition figures could make life difficult for Poroshenko in the remaining four years of his term.

The mantle of representing ethnic Russians has been taken up by the new and largely unknown Opposition Bloc of former energy minister Yuriy Boiko.

The one-time power broker won less than one percent of the May presidential ballot and seems to lack the magnetism needed to revive his campaign but his party could still win enough seats to tip the balance against Poroshenko on crucial votes.

Deputy party leader Oleksandr Vilkul recently accused Prososhenko of turning ethnic Russians into "second-class citizens whose voices are almost never heard".

The bloc will hope for a strong finish in the southwestern Ukrainian port of Odessa and central regions where Russian is spoken alongside Ukrainian.