Strength and Honor ( uk, Сила і Честь, translit=Syla i Chest', SiCh) is a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

led by

Ihor Smeshko Colonel General Ihor Petrovich Smeshko ( uk, Ігор Петрович Смешко, born 17 August 1955) served as the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) from 2003 to 2005, where he supported the opposition during the Orange Revolutio ...

History

Before the creation of the political party "Strength and Honor"

led the

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

"Strength and Honor". The party was officially registered as a political party in December 2009 and has since been led by Smeshko. The party took part in the

2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place on 26 October 2014. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, had pressed for early parliamentary elections since his victory in the presidential election in May.President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

(

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko ser ...

).Ex-head of the SBU decided to go to the presidency

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukraini ...

(13 January 2019) The party election list was instead lead by General Oleksander Kichtenko. In the election the party gained 0.08% of the vote and thus could not overcome the 5%

election threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

. Smeshko took part in the

2019 Ukrainian presidential election The 2019 Ukrainian presidential election was held on 31 March and 21 April in a two-round system. There were 39 candidates for the election on the ballot. The 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia and the occupation of parts of Donetsk Oblast an ...

and took sixth place with 6.04% of the vote. In the first quarter of 2019, the party's financial report stated that the party accounts had only ₴40 thousand (about €1,200). The report also admitted that the party had 14 local organizations, none of which had its own bank account and since the party had not paid salaries, they had to be run by volunteers, or nobody at all. In June 2019, journalist

Dmitry Gordon Dmitry Ilyich Gordon ( uk, Дмитро Ілліч Гордон, Dmytro Illich Hordon, russian: Дмитрий Ильич Гордон; born October 21, 1967) is a Ukrainian journalist, interviewer, politician and singer. He is also the editor- ...

became the head of the election headquarters of the party Strength and Honor. The top 10 of the party list for the July

2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Ukrainian parliament were held on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, these elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolv ...

included Smeshko himself, former minister in the Azarov Government

Volodymyr Semynozhenko Volodymyr Petrovych Semynozhenko ( uk, Володи́мир Петро́вич Семино́женко) (born 9 June 1950) is a Ukrainian politician and scientist. Semynozhenko is a former Vice Premier Minister of Ukraine (in 1999, 2001–2002 ...

, incumbent MPs

Olena Sotnyk Olena Serhijivna Sotnyk (born 21 December 1982, Kyiv) is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician, former Member of the Parliament of Ukraine (VIII convocation) from Samopomich ("Self-Reliance") Party. She was the secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Comm ...

Iryna Sysoyenko Iryna Sysoyenko ( uk, Ірина Володимирівна Сисоєнко; born March 6, 1982) is a Ukrainian politician and lawyer. She is a former National Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) representing the Samopomich (S ...

and

Refat Chubarov Refat Abdurahman oglu Chubarov; Crimean Tatar Cyrillic: Рефат Абдурахман огълу Чубаров uk, Рефат Абдурахманович Чубаров, translit=Refat Abdurakhmanovych Chubarov (born 22 September 1957) is ...

and former commander of the

Ukrainian army The Ukrainian Ground Forces ( uk, Сухопу́тні військá Збрóйних сил Украї́ни), also known as the Ukrainian Army, are the land forces of Ukraine and one of the five branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They we ...

Volodymyr Zamana Volodymyr Zamana is a Ukrainian colonel general, Chief of the General Staff in 2012–2014. On 19 February 2014, at the height of the February 2014 Euromaidan riots, president Viktor Yanukovych dismissed Zamana from his position as Chief of t ...

. But in the election the party won 3.82%, not enough to clear the 5% election threshold and thus no parliamentary seats. The party also failed to win a constituency seat.CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections

Ukrinform The National News Agency of Ukraine ( uk, Українське національне інформаційне агентство), or Ukrinform ( uk, Укрінформ), is a state information and news agency, and international broadcaster of ...

(26 July 2019)
Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019

(21 July 2019) In the 2020 Ukrainian local elections, Strength and Honor won 575 local and regional level seats across Ukraine, earning 1.35% of the vote. Its biggest success came in

Volyn Oblast Volyn Oblast ( uk, Воли́нська о́бласть, translit=Volýnsʹka óblastʹ; also referred to as Volyn or Lodomeria) is an oblast (province) in northwestern Ukraine. Its administrative centre is Lutsk. Kovel is the westernmost town an ...

Western Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austria ...

, where it won four seats on the regional parliament, the

Volyn Oblast Council The Volyn Oblast Council ( uk, Волинська обласна рада) is the regional oblast council (parliament) of the Volyn Oblast (province) located in western Ukraine. Council members are elected for five year terms. In order to gain re ...

References

{{Ukrainian political parties 2009 establishments in Ukraine Anti-corruption parties in Ukraine Conservative parties in Ukraine Political parties established in 2009 Political parties in Ukraine Pro-European political parties in Ukraine