Elections in Ukraine are held to choose the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

(

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

(

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

), and

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...

s. Referendums may be held on special occasions. Ukraine has a

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in ...

, with numerous parties in which often not a single party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

Legislation

Elections in Ukraine are held to choose the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

(

) and

(

). The president is elected for a five-year term. The Verkhovna Rada has 450 members and is also elected for a five-year term, but may be dissolved earlier by the president in the case of a failure to form a government. The next election to the Verkhovna Rada, set to be in 2023,Early to rejoice? Regular parliamentary elections may take place under Yanukovych's law

Civil movement "Chesno" Chesno ( uk, Чесно, lit=honestly, fairly) is a Ukrainian public campaign that emerged late 2011 to advance a fair election process. It is widely known for its critical analysis and evaluation of politicians and the Verkhovna Rada (parliame ...

(11 July 2019) will be, for the first time, with different regional

open lists Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, part ...

(with again an

electoral 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 ...

of five percent) and a return, and thus abolition of the

constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

with

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

, to only one national constituency.Electoral Code becomes effective in Ukraine

Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company publishes i ...

(1 January 2010) From

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

until the

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 Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved parliament on 21 ...

the Verkhovna Rada was elected using a mixed election system. Half of the representatives were elected from national closed party lists distributed between the parties using the

Hare quota The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota) is a formula used under some forms of proportional representation. In these voting systems the quota is the number of votes that guarantees a candidate, or a party in some cases, captures a seat. T ...

with a 5% threshold. The remaining half were elected from

using

. This system was adopted for the 2012 elections and was also used for the 2014 election, as a new draft law moving to electing all members using open party lists failed to gather necessary support in the Rada. According to current law, the next election to the Verkhovna Rada (to be held) in 2023 will again be without single-member constituencies and instead deputies can only be elected on a party list in one nationwide constituency with a 5% election threshold with

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * Open (Blues Image album), ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * Open (Gotthard album), ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * Open (C ...

regional lists of candidates for deputies. A snap poll must have a

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

higher than 50%. Ukraine's election law forbids outside financing of political parties or campaigns. Presidential candidates must have had residence in Ukraine for the past ten years prior to election day.Vitali Klitschko says intends to run for president in Ukraine

(24 October 2013)
Parliament passes law that could prevent Klitschko from running for president

(24 October 2013) Since late February 2016 a party congress is allowed to remove any candidate from its party list before the Central Election Commission recognizes him or her elected. Meaning that parties after elections can prevent their candidates to take a seat in parliament that they were entitled to due to their place on the party list. A party is (since late February 2016) also allowed to excluded people from its electoral list of the last parliamentary elections. In Ukraine political campaigning outside election campaign periods is prohibited. But this prohibition is widely ignored in election years and perpetraters are seldom punished since political parties use loopholes in election law.Campaign false start: who is already advertised in the Dnipro

(26 August 2020)

Local elections

Under the

Constitution of Ukraine The Constitution of Ukraine ( uk, Конституція України, translit=Konstytutsiia Ukrainy) is the fundamental law of Ukraine. The constitution was adopted and ratified at the 5th session of the ''Verkhovna Rada'', the parliament ...

, the term of office of the heads of villages and towns and the council members of these villages and towns is five years.CEC member: Kyiv City Council to be elected for five years in upcoming election

(16 February 2013)

Past legislation

The parliamentary election law has been changed four times from 1991 to 2015.Experts: Proposed election law casts cloud over next year’s parliamentary contest

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...

(October 3, 2011) Before 1998 all the members of the Parliament were elected by single-seat

(from each electoral district). In 1998 and in 2002 half of the members were elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

(faction vote) and the other half by single-seat constituencies. In the

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

and 2007 parliamentary election, all 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada were elected by

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be u ...

with

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...

s (the same goes for local elections).Parliament rejects bill on local elections under open lists

(July 1, 2010) In the

2010 Ukrainian local elections The 2010 Ukrainian local elections took place on 31 October 2010,dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, the

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine, Abbreviation: KPU, from Ukrainian and Russian "" is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 as the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine which was banned in 1991 (accord ...

politically dominated most of Ukraine. By mid 1990s the communists completely lost popularity in western Ukraine, which voted for any representative but communist. Since

Leonid Kuchma Leonid Danylovych Kuchma ( uk, Леоні́д Дани́лович Ку́чма; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. Kuchma's presidency saw numerous corru ...

left presidential post, in 2004 support for the Communist Party shifted towards the

Party of Regions The Party of Regions ( uk, Партія регіонів, Partiia rehioniv, ; russian: Партия регионов, Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of U ...

being politically dominating mostly over the southeastern Ukraine. At the same time initially led by the

People's Movement of Ukraine The People's Movement of Ukraine ( uk, Народний Рух України, Narodnyi Rukh Ukrayiny) is a Ukrainian political party and first opposition party in Soviet Ukraine. Often it is simply referred to as the Movement ( uk, Рух, Ru ...

, political leadership in the non-communist camp was taken over by Our Ukraine bloc and Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko. In the elections since 2002 voters of Western and Central Ukrainian oblasts voted mostly for parties ( Our Ukraine,

Batkivshchyna The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" ( uk, Всеукраїнське об'єднання "Батьківщина", translit=Vseukrains'ke obiednannia "Bat'kivshchyna") referred to as Batkivshchyna (), is a political party in Ukraine led by Pe ...

, UDAR, Self Reliance, Radical Party,

Petro Poroshenko Bloc European Solidarity ( uk, Європейська солідарність, Yevropeis'ka solidarnist', YeS) is a political party in Ukraine. It has its roots in a parliamentary group called Solidarity dating from 2000 and has existed since in va ...

and the People's Front) and presidential candidates (

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko ( uk, Віктор Андрійович Ющенко, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. As an informal leader of th ...

, Yulia Tymoshenko) with a pro-Western and state reform platform, while voters in Southern and Eastern oblasts of Ukraine voted for parties (

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...

and

Opposition Bloc russian: Оппозиционный блок , colorcode = , logo = Opposition Bloc.png , logo_size = 240px , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Rinat Akhmetov (one wing)Dmytro Firtash & Yuriy Boyko ...

) and presidential candidates (

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of D ...

) with a pro-Russian and

status quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. ...

platform.Communist and Post-Communist Parties in Europe
by

Uwe Backes Uwe Backes (born 2 February 1960 in Greimerath) is a German political scientist and specialist in political extremism. He is a professor at the Technical University Dresden and together with Eckhard Jesse the editor of the ' and '. Backes is ...

and Patrick Moreau, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, (page 396)Ukraine right-wing politics: is the genie out of the bottle?

openDemocracy.net openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage de ...

(January 3, 2011)Eight Reasons Why Ukraine’s Party of Regions Will Win the 2012 Elections
by

Taras Kuzio Taras Kuzio (born 1958) is a British academic and expert in Ukrainian political, economic and security affairs. He is Professor of Political Science at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy ( Kyiv, Ukraine). Education Taras Kuzio received a ...

The Jamestown Foundation The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, wh ...

(17 October 2012)
UKRAINE: Yushchenko needs Tymoshenko as ally again
by

Oxford Analytica Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm providing strategic analysis of world events. It was founded in 1975 by David Young (Watergate), David Young, an American employee of the United States National Security Council, National Secur ...

(5 October 2007) Although this geographical division is decreasing. Till 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. But in the 2014 parliamentary election Party of Regions did not to participate (because of a perceived lack of legitimacy (of the election), because not every resident of the

Donbas The Donbas or Donbass (, ; uk, Донба́с ; russian: Донба́сс ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrai ...

could vote) and the CPU came 1.12% short of the 5% election threshold.General official results of Rada election

(11 November 2014)
Central Election Commission announces official results of Rada election on party tickets

(11 November 2014) The results were a victory for the pro-Western parties and a major defeat for the pro-Russian camp. A 2010 study by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of Ukraine found that in general, Yulia Tymoshenko supporters are more optimistic compared with Viktor Yanukovych supporters. 46 percent of the Tymoshenko's backers expect improvement in their well-being in the next year compared to 30 percent for Yanukovych.

Parliamentary elections

by party list

by constituency

Presidential elections

Voter turnout

From 1994 to 2007 the average voter turnout for the Verkhovna Rada elections was 68.13% The total voter turnout in the 2012 parliamentary elections was then the lowest ever with 57.99%;CEC:Turnout in Ukraine's parliamentary elections 57.99%

(29 October 2012) The lowest turnout in these elections was in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

(with 49.46%), the highest in

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a relational adjective—in English translating to a noun adjunct w ...

(67.13%). In the 2014 parliamentary elections the official voter turnout was set (by the

Central Election Commission of Ukraine The Central Election Commission of Ukraine ( uk, Центральна виборча комісія України, commonly abbreviated in Ukrainian as ЦВК (''Tse-Ve-Ka''); sometimes referred to as the Central Electoral Commission of Ukrai ...

) at 52.42%.Voter turnout at Rada election 52.42% at all 198 constituencies - CEC

(27 October 2014) This figure was determined after the Central Electoral Commission deducted the eligible voters in areas were voting was impossible. Because of the ongoing

War in Donbass War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

and the unilateral annexation of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, the 2014 parliamentary elections were not held in Crimea and also not held in parts of

Donetsk Oblast The Donetsk Oblast ( ukr, Донецька область, Donetska oblast, ), also referred to as Donechchyna ( ukr, Донеччина, links=no), is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 mill ...

and

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast ( uk, Луга́нська о́бласть, translit=Luhanska oblast; russian: Луганская область, translit=Luganskaya oblast; also referred to as Luhanshchyna, uk, Луга́нщина) is the easternmost Adminis ...

. The lowest turnout in these elections was in Donetsk Oblast (with 32.4%), the highest in again in Lviv Oblast (70%).Voter turnout at Rada election 52.42% at all 198 constituencies
, National Radio Company of Ukraine (27 October 2014) According to Tadeusz Olszański, of the

Centre for Eastern Studies The Centre for Eastern Studies ( pl, Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich, OSW) is a Warsaw-based think tank that undertakes independent research on the political, economic and social situation in Central and Eastern Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and C ...

, the low turnout in Donetsk Oblast (and also Luhansk Oblast) is explained by the end of an artificial increase of voter turnout there by

officials. Voter turnout in the

presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

is always higher than for Verkhovna Rada elections with an average voter turnout of 72% from 2004 till 2010 (67.95% in the 2010 Presidential election). In the 2014 Presidential election the Central Election Commission of Ukraine set the turnout at over 60%; just as in the 2014 parliamentary elections, these elections were not held in Crimea and also not held in parts of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast.Poroshenko Declares Victory in Ukraine Presidential Election

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

(25 May 2014) The most popular presidential elections were the first one in 1991 where nearly 30.6 million people voted and in the 2004 election which gathered some 28 million. There were only three presidential candidates who have gathered over 10 million votes:

Leonid Kravchuk Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk ( uk, Леонід Макарович Кравчук; 10 January 1934 – 10 May 2022) was a Ukrainian politician and the first president of Ukraine, serving from 5 December 1991 until 19 July 1994. In 1992, he signed ...

(1991 - 19.6, 1994 - 10.0),

(2004 - 11.1), and

(2004 - 11.0). The 10 million voters mark was almost reached by

in 1999, but he only gained the trust of 9.6 million. To this day Kravchuk and

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 se ...

are the only presidential candidates who won the elections after the first round obtaining over 50% of votes, respective in 1991 and 2014. The person most frequently participating in presidential elections is

Oleksandr Moroz Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Morozrussian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Моро́з, translit=Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Moroz (born 29 February 1944) is a Ukrainian politician. He was the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada twice, ...

who stood in every presidential election since 1994 when he gained the biggest support of some 3.5 million, while in 2010 less than 0.1 million voted for him. Viktor Yanukovych became the strongest runner-up in the history of presidential elections, while Leonid Kuchma - the only runner-up of the first round to pull a win in the second one. Thus far the top two presidential candidates always would get support of over 5 million voters each. Since the

1994 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 27 March 1994, with a second round between 2 and 10 April. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1976 15 political parties gained seats and the majority of deputi ...

voter turnouts have been declining. 1994 75.81%,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

70.78%,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

69.27%,

67.55%,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

62.03%,

57.43%,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

51.91% and the

at 49.84%.

Perceived flaws in legislation

Despite a clear system for declaring donations to campaign funds, officials and experts say that Ukraine's election law is consistently flouted, with spending from candidates’ official funds representing only a fraction of the amount truly spent while it is rarely clear where the funding comes from. Early May 2009, the "Committee of Voters of Ukraine" stated they believe that the use of the state's

administrative resource Administrative resource is the ability of political candidates (and parties) to use their official positions or connections to government institutions to influence the outcome of elections. The term is widely used in Russia and other former USSR co ...

s by political forces for their own national and local election campaigns is no longer a decisive factor in the outcome of Ukrainian elections. According to a survey of 2,000 people conducted in October 2010 by two Ukrainian nongovernmental organizations, the Democratic Initiatives Fund and

OPORA Pora! ( uk, Пора!, Russian: Пора!), meaning “''It's time!”'' in both Ukrainian and Russian, is a civic youth organization (Black Pora!) and political party in Ukraine ( Yellow Pora!) espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating in ...

, one in five Ukrainians were willing to sell his or her vote in the then upcoming

2010 Ukrainian local elections The 2010 Ukrainian local elections took place on 31 October 2010,Ukrainian Prime Minister The prime minister of Ukraine ( uk, Прем'єр-міністр України, ) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of t ...

Mykola Azarov these elections "were absolutely without the use of

administrative resources Administrative resource is the ability of political candidates (and parties) to use their official positions or connections to government institutions to influence the outcome of elections. The term is widely used in Russia and other former USS ...

, naturally. Nobody interfered with our citizens."Yanukovych's Party Looks To Victory Amid Claims Of Election Fraud

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

(November 01, 2010)

References

External links

*
Central Election Commission of UkraineUKR.VOTE Elections ListAdam Carr's Election ArchiveSerhiy Vasylchenko: Electoral Geography of Ukraine 1991 - 2010If parliamentary elections were held next Sunday how would you vote? (Recurrent poll since 2010)
by Razumkov Centre
Rating of parties since 2006
by

Sociological group "RATING" Rating ( uk, Рейтинг), or fully the Sociological group "Rating" ( uk, Соціологічнна група «Рейтинг»), is a Ukrainian independent, non-governmental research organization, that specializes in conducting all type ...

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