Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002

Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002
Ukraine
31 March 2002

All 450 seats to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
226 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Viktor Yushchenko Petro Symonenko Volodymyr Lytvyn
Party Our Ukraine Communist Party For United Ukraine!
Leader since 2002 19 June 1993 15 December 2001
Last election 46 seats, 9.40% (as People's Movement of Ukraine) 121 seats, 25.4% 28 seats, 5.01% (as People's Democratic Party)
Seats won 111 66 101
Seat change Increase 65 Decrease 55 Increase 73
Popular vote 6,114,768 5,179,709 3,057,824
Percentage 24.5% 19.98% 11.79%
Swing Increase 14.18% Decrease 4.67% Increase 6.78%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Yulia Tymoshenko Oleksandr Moroz Viktor Medvedchuk
Party Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc Socialist Party SDPU (united)
Last election 5 seats, 2.71% (as National Front) 34 seats, 8.55% 17 seats, 4.01%
Seats won 22 22 24
Seat change Increase 17 Decrease 12 Increase 7
Popular vote 1,883,194 1,780,998 1,627,319
Percentage 7.26% 6.87% 6.28%
Swing Increase 4.55% Decrease 1.68% Increase 2.27%

Results of the 2002 parliamentary election.

Chairman of Parliament before election

Ivan Plyushch
Independent

Elected Chairman of Parliament

Volodymyr Lytvyn
For United Ukraine!

Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 31 March 2002.[1] The Our Ukraine bloc emerged as the largest faction in the Verkhovna Rada, winning 111 of the 447 seats.[2]

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted at the time that there were physical assaults and harassment of candidates and campaign workers associated with opposition political parties prior to the March election.[3] The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc complained of campaign related violations including "an informal 'media blackout,' [and] negatively slanted coverage".[3]

Electoral system

Half of the deputies to Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) were elected on proportional basis, while the other half were elected by popular vote in single-mandate constituencies.[4] In order to gain any (proportional) seats in Verkhovna Rada a party needed to receive at least 4% of the popular vote.[5]

Public opinion polls

Polls Our Ukraine Communists ZaEdU[6] SDPU (o)[7] BYuT[8] Socialists Vitrenko[9] Greens Zh/M[10] KOP[11] Apple
All-Ukrainian Social Service (3/31/2002)[12] 22% 20% 14% 8% 6% 5% 3.5%
Razumkov Centre (3/29/2002)[13] 26-28% 18-19% 7-8% 9-10% 7-8% 3.5-4.5% 4-5% 4.5-5.5% 4-5% 2.5-3.5% 2.5-3%
Politic's Institute (3/29/2002)[13] 29-32% 19-21% 6-8% 7-9% 4-5% 4-5% 5-6% 4-5%
Ukrainian Institute of Social Research and
Center "Social Monitoring" (3/27/2002)[14]
23-25% 17-19% 11-13% 10-12% 5.5-7% 3.5-4.5% 3-4% 4-5.5% 4-5.5% 2.5-4% 2.5-3.5%
Center SOCIS (3/27/2002)[14] 31-33% 17-19% 5-6% 7-8% 3-4% 2-3% 2-3% 5-6% 4-5%

Incidents

On March 29, 2002 the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko won a case on defamation against the Chairman of the Tax Administration of Ukraine Mykola Azarov. The Shevchenkivsky District Court of the Kiev city prohibited the Tax Administration of Ukraine to spread lies against the opposition electoral bloc.[15]

Late at night on March 29, 2002 was mortally wounded a vice-governor of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Mykola Shkriblyak. Shkriblyak was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) and he ran for the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) at the 90th electoral district. He died later in a local hospital.[16]

Results

Party PR Constituency
seats
Total
seats
+/–
Votes % Seats
Our Ukraine 6,108,08824.57041111New
Communist Party of Ukraine5,178,07420.859766–55
For United Ukraine 3,051,05612.23566101New
Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc 1,882,0877.522022New
Socialist Party of Ukraine1,780,6427.120222–12
Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (United)1,626,7216.519524+7
4% threshold for the party-list vote
Party of Greens of Ukraine338,2521.4000–19
Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc 836,1983.4000New
Women for the Future547,9162.2000New
Team of Winter Generation 525,0252.100New
Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed)362,7121.5000New
Yabluko299,7641.2000New
Bloc Unity 282,4911.1033New
DemPU-DemU 227,3930.9044New
New Generation of Ukraine201,1570.8000New
Russian Bloc 190,8390.8000New
For Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
  • For Human Rights
  • Light from the East
112,2590.500New
Communist Party of Workers and Peasants106,9040.4000New
Peasant Party of Ukraine98,4280.4000
Party for the Rehabilitation of the Invalids of Ukraine91,0980.4000New
All-Ukrainian Party of Workers88,8420.40000
All-Ukrainian Association of Christians75,1740.30000
Social Democratic Party of Ukraine68,6640.300New
Popular Movement of Ukraine Bloc 41,7300.2000New
Against All Bloc
  • Patriotic Party of Ukraine
  • Political Party of Small and Middle Business of Ukraine
29,6650.100New
Ukrainian Party of Mariners29,0250.1011New
Popular Party of Investors and Social Protection27,2730.1000New
New Force26,2990.1000New
Christian Movement23,5910.100New
Justice Association of Leftists21,9570.1000New
Ukrainian National Assembly11,8390.0000New
New World
  • New World
  • Ukrainian Party
11,0480.000New
LPU (o)8,5350.000New
Party of National Economic Development of Ukraine11+1
People's Party00New
Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine00–2
Independents9292–19
Against all635,1992.5
Vacant033–2
Invalid/blank votes963,462
Total25,909,4071002252254500
Registered voters/turnout37,403,66169.3
Source; Nohlen & Stöver

The final election results differed greatly from the final opinion poll.[17] The 2002 parliamentary elections were the first that substantially reduced fragmentation of the Verkhovna Rada and laid the groundwork for consolidation of political views in the parliament.

Yushchenko's Our Ukraine gathered most of its support from western and central regions of Ukraine, including the city of Kiev. The Communist Party received most of its votes from eastern and southern regions, as well as from Crimea. For United Ukraine block, which included Victor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, got most of its votes from eastern regions of Ukraine. Donetsk Oblast was the stronghold of the block, where it received more than twice the number of votes (36.83%) compared to the next highest supporting region: Sumy Oblast with 17.05% of the region's voters. Yulia Tymoshenko's block's support came predominantly from western regions, while the Socialists were most supported in the central regions. While the Tymoshenko block received more of the national vote compared to the Socialist Party, it did not gain a plurality in any of the regions, while the Socialist Party managed to secure plurality of votes in Poltava Oblast with 22.05%.

Faction changes after 2002 election

After the election, several MPs left their parties to join another others.[18]

 Faction changes after the Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002 (main parties and alliances)
Parties and alliances Number of seats on 15 May 2002 Number of seats on 19 October 2002 Number of seats on 2 January 2003 Number of seats on 16 September 2005   
Viktor Yushchenko Bloc Our Ukraine 119 110 102 45 74 seats
Communist Party of Ukraine 64 61 60 56 8 seats
For United Ukraine 175 Disbanded Disbanded Disbanded 175 seats
Electoral Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko 23 20 18 40 17 seats
Socialist Party of Ukraine 22 21 20 26 4 seats
United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine 31 38 40 20 11 seats
Source: Virtual Politics - Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World, Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-09545-7 & Ukraine on Its Meandering Path Between East and West by Andrej Lushnycky and Mykola Riabchuk, Peter Lang, 2009, ISBN 303911607X & Ukraine at the Crossroads: Velvet Revolution or Belarusification by Olexiy Haran, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, October 2002

By October 2002 the For United Ukraine faction had broken down in 8 new parliamentary factions.[19]

References

  1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1976 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1991
  3. 1 2 Ukraine:Treatment of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU); relationship with the National Salvation Forum (FNB); treatment of FNB members, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada via UNHCR (14 August 2003)
  4. Against All Odds: Aiding Political Parties in Georgia and Ukraine (UvA Proefschriften) by Max Bader, Vossiuspers UvA, 2010, ISBN 90-5629-631-0 (page 93)
  5. Ukraine at the Crossroads: Economic Reforms in International Perspective by Axel Siedenberg (Editor), Lutz Hoffmann, Physica-Verlag Heidelberg, 1999, ISBN 3790811890/ISBN 978-3790811896 (page 184)
  6. For One Ukraine
  7. Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)
  8. Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko
  9. Bloc of Nataliya Vitrenko
  10. Women for Future
  11. Team of Winter Generation
  12. (Ukrainian) "За ЄдУ" отримує свої 14%. У відповідному exit-poll (ZaEdU is receiving its 14%. In the respective exit-poll). Ukrayinska Pravda. March 31, 2002
  13. 1 2 (Ukrainian) Вибори-2002: остаточний прогноз (Elections-2002: the final forecast). Ukrayinska Pravda. March 29, 2002
  14. 1 2 Рейтинги переможців. Без табу (Ratings of victors. No taboo). Ukrayinska Pravda. March 27, 2002
  15. Тимошенко виграла суд у Азарова (Tymoshenko won case against Azarov). Ukrayinska Pravda. March 29, 2002
  16. Вбито кандидата в депутати від СДПУ(О) (A parliamentary candidate from SDPU (u) was killed). Ukrayinska Pravda. March 30, 2002
  17. Ukraine's election frontrunners, BBC News (28 March 2002)
  18. Virtual Politics - Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World, Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-09545-7
  19. Ukraine at the Crossroads: Velvet Revolution or Belarusification by Olexiy Haran, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, October 2002
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