Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002

Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002

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 65 55 73 Popular vote 6,114,768 5,179,709 3,057,824 Percentage 24.5% 19.98% 11.79% Swing 14.18% 4.67% 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 17 12 7 Popular vote 1,883,194 1,780,998 1,627,319 Percentage 7.26% 6.87% 6.28% Swing 4.55% 1.68% 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

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

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

External links

• Central Election Commission of Ukraine
• Relatively in-depth analysis of the election GlobalSecurity.org

Elections and referendums in Ukraine Central Election Commission of Ukraine Presidential elections 1991 1994 1999 2004 2010 2014 Parliamentary elections 1918 1937 19391 1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2007 2012 2014 Local elections 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 Referendums 1991 (Mar) 1991 (Dec) 2000 1Western Ukraine only See also: Elections and referendums in Crimea