Ukrainian presidential election, 2019
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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 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 prevented around 12% of eligible voters from participating in the election. As no candidate received an absolute majority of the vote, a second round was held between the top two candidates, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a comedian who portrayed a fictional president of Ukraine in the comedy television series '' Servant of the People'', and the incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko, on 21 April 2019. According to the
Central Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
, Zelenskyy won the second round with 73.22% of the votes.


Background

According to Ukrainian law, the election of the President of Ukraine must take place on the last Sunday of March of the fifth year of the term of the incumbent president. Thus the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election took place on 31 March 2019. The Ukrainian parliament had to approve the date of the presidential election no later than 100 days before the election day. On 26 November 2018 the parliament set the presidential vote for 31 March 2019.
34,544,993 people were eligible to vote in the elections. However, the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia and the occupation of 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 by separatists ( since April 2014) made roughly 12% of eligible voters unable to participate in the elections. The Ukrainian
Central Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
closed all five foreign polling stations in Russia ahead of the vote. Analysis of candidates by the Ukrainian NGO "Chesno" found that Petro Poroshenko had the largest election fund (
The hryvnia sign (₴) is a currency symbol, used for the Ukrainian hryvnia currency since 2004. Description The hryvnia sign is a cursive minuscule Ukrainian alphabet, Ukrainian Cyrillic letter He (Cyrillic), He (''г''), or a mirrored letter S ...
415 million, about $15.4 million), followed by Yulia Tymoshenko with ₴320 million, Volodymyr Zelenskyy with ₴102.8 million, and Serhiy Taruta with ₴98.4 million. By comparison, in the
2010 Ukrainian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 17 January 2010. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a run-off election was held between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych on 7 February. On 14 F ...
, then winner Viktor Yanukovych spent over $40 million and runner-up Yulia Tymoshenko spent $36 million.Poroshenko, Tymoshenko, Zelensky and Taruta have largest election funds - CHESNO movement
Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company pub ...
(26 March 2019).
A total of 2,369 international observers from 17 countries and 19 organizations were officially registered to monitor the elections. A record number of 139 non-governmental Ukrainian organizations were registered as observers.CEC: Presidential election will have an unprecedented number of observers
Ukrayinska Pravda (19 March 2019)


Candidates

According to Ukrainian law, a presidential candidate must be a
citizen of Ukraine Ukrainian nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of Ukraine. The primary law governing these requirements is the law "On Citizenship of Ukraine", which came into force on 1 March 2001. Any person born to a Uk ...
who is at least 35 years old, can speak the (state) Ukrainian language and has lived in Ukraine for the last ten years prior to election day.The CEC unveiled a calendar plan for the presidential election
Ukrayinska Pravda (21 December 2018)Elections of the President of Ukraine 2019: figures, dates and candidates
Ukrayinska Pravda (14 November 2018)
Candidates were nominated by a political party, or by self-nomination. Candidates also had to submit a declaration of income for the year preceding the election year. This document was then scrutinized by the
National Agency for Prevention of Corruption The National Agency for Prevention of Corruption ( uk, Національне агентство з питань запобігання корупції) or NAPC is a national anti-corruption agency of the Ukrainian government which is respons ...
, which subsequently published the results of the audit. Nominations could be submitted from 31 December 2018 to 4 February 2019. The end of the registration period was 9 February 2019. After a potential candidate provided the required documentation to the
Central Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
(CEC), this body had five days to register the candidate or to refuse to do so.Bogomolets officially went to the presidency
Ukrayinska Pravda (16 January 2019)
Candidates were required to pay a nomination deposit of ₴2.5 million (approx. US$90,000); only the two candidates that progress to the second round of voting will get this deposit returned (the other deposits will be transferred to the state budget). By the end of the registration period on 9 February 2019, the
Central Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
(CEC) had registered 44 candidates for the elections. This meant that the largest number of candidates participated in the elections. In total, 92 people submitted documents to the CEC to participate in the elections. Five candidates withdrew. The CEC refused to register 47 people, most for their failure to pay the deposit.The CEC refused to register nearly fifty presidential candidates
Ukrayinska Pravda (8 February 2019)
Candidates could withdraw their candidacy, but not later than 23 days before the election. On 8 March, the CEC approved the final list of candidates. There were a total of 39 candidates for the first round of the election.Thirty-nine candidates to run for president in Ukraine - CEC
Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company pub ...
(8 March 2019)


Registered candidates


Candidates who withdrew

* Andriy Sadovyi: Mayor of Lviv; his party
Self Reliance "Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false con ...
announced on 3 October 2018 that Sadovyi is its candidate in the election. The CEC registered Sadovyi as a candidate on 8 January. In February Sadovyi talked about withdrawing his candidacy in favour of supporting Anatoliy Hrytsenko as a united candidate from "democratic, anti-corruption forces". He made the decision to withdraw on 1 March and then declared his support for Hrytsenko. *
Dmytro Gnap Dmytro Volodymyrovych Hnap ( uk, Дмитро Володимирович Гнап, Dmytro Volodymyrovych Hnap; born 19 December 1977) is a Ukrainian journalist at Slidstvo.Info and Hromadske.TV. His work focuses on corruption and crime. Biograph ...
: Journalist; Gnap was nominated by the party
Power of the People Power of the People ( uk, Сила людей, Syla Lyudey, SL) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian liberal political party registered by the Ministry of Justice on 20 August 2014. On 8 February 2019, Dmytro Gnap was nominated as the party's candidate for the ...
on 20 January, and became a registered candidate on 8 February. He withdrew from the election on 2 March, also in favor of Anatoliy Hrytsenko.Gnap also withdraws from the elections in favor of Hritsenko
Ukrayinska Pravda (1 March 2019)
*Serhiy Krivonos: veteran of the
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 ...
; Krivonos was nominated by the party Soldiers of the Anti-Terrorist Operation and subsequently registered by the CEC on 5 February. On 6 March he announced that he was withdrawing from the elections to support incumbent president Petro Poroshenko. * Yevheniy Murayev: People's Deputy of Ukraine; on 10 January 2019, Murayev's party Nashi nominated him for president. The CEC registered his candidacy on 15 January. On 7 March he pulled out of the election favor of Oleksandr Vilkul. He also announced that Vilkul's
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 Nashi would soon merge.Muraev emerged from the elections in favor of Vilkul
Ukrayinska Pravda (7 March 2019)
*
Dmytro Dobrodomov , birth_date = , birth_place = Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union , party = People's control , nationality = Ukrainian , alma_mater = University of Lviv , occupation = Politician , website Dmytro Dobrodomov (Ukrainian ''Дмитро Єв ...
: People's Deputy of Ukraine and leader of the was a registered candidate since 25 January. He withdrew from the election on 7 March in favor of Anatoliy Hrytsenko.Another candidate appeared in favor of Gritsenko
Ukrayinska Pravda (7 March 2019)


Registration denied

The CEC rejected 47 applications (mostly for failure to pay the deposit of ₴2.5 million) of potential candidates, including: *
Petro Symonenko Petro Mykolayovych Symonenko ( uk, Петро́ Микола́йович Симоне́нко; born 1 August 1952) is a Ukrainian politician and the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Symonenko was the Co ...
: Leader of 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 ...
. His nomination was announced at the party's congress on 1 December 2018. Legally the Communist Party of Ukraine is not banned, but the Ministry of Justice is allowed to prohibit it from participating in elections. The CEC refused to register him as a candidate on 2 February because the statute, name, and symbolism of the Communist Party of Ukraine did not comply with 2015 decommunization laws. *
Nadiya Savchenko Nadiya Viktorivna Savchenko ( uk, Надія Вікторівна Савченко; born 11 May 1981) is a Ukrainian politician, former Army aviation pilot in the Ukrainian Ground Forces and former People's Deputy of Ukraine. During the 2014 ...
: People's Deputy of Ukraine and Hero of Ukraine. Savchenko was nominated by her party on 26 January 2019. Her bid to become a candidate was rejected by the CEC on 7 February because she failed to pay the deposit and her party didn't stamp the document regarding her nomination.


Declined candidates

*
Andriy Biletsky Andriy Yevheniyovych Biletsky ( uk, Андрі́й Євге́нійович Біле́цький, Andríj Jevhénijovyč Biléćký, ; born 5 August 1979) is a Ukrainian far-right politician. He is the leader of political party National Corps. ...
: People's Deputy of Ukraine and leader of political party
National Corps The National Corps ( uk, Національний корпус, Natsionalnyi korpus), also known as the National Corps Party, and previously called the Patriots of Ukraine, is a far-right political party in Ukraine founded in 2016 and then led by A ...
; nominated by his party on 20 November 2018. Biletsky later said that he had no intention of participating in the "farce" of a presidential election. *
Vadim Rabinovich Vadim Zinovyevich Rabinovichrussian: Вади́м Зино́вьевич Рабино́вич he, ודים רבינוביץ' (born 4 August 1953) is an Israeli and formerly Ukrainian oligarch and Jewish community leader. He is a former leader ...
: People's Deputy of Ukraine and businessman. On 15 November 2018 Rabinovich announced he would not take part in the presidential election; but that he would top his party's For Life list in the following
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 ...
s. * Oleh Tyahnybok: Chairman of the party All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda. On 14 October 2018, he announced that he would not be running for president and that the party had instead decided to nominate Koshulynskyi as the candidate of Ukraine's nationalist political forces. *: Tereshchenko stepped down as mayor of
Hlukhiv Hlukhiv ( uk, Глу́хів, ) or Glukhov (russian: Глухов, translit=Glukhov) is a small historic town on the Esman River. It is a City of regional significance (Ukraine), city of regional significance in the Sumy Oblast, Sumy region of U ...
on 1 October 2018 to become a candidate. Yet, during the November–30 December-day
martial law in Ukraine The legal basis for the introduction of martial law in Ukraine ( uk, Воєнний стан в Україні) is the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On the legal status of martial law" (No. 389-VIII from May 12, 2015) and presidentia ...
he resumed his position as mayor and on 3 January 2019 declared his support for candidate Andriy Sadovyi during a congress of Sadovyi's party
Self Reliance "Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false con ...
. * Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, lead vocalist of the rock band
Okean Elzy Okean Elzy ( uk, Океан Ельзи, translation: ''Elza's Ocean'') is a Ukrainian rock band. It was formed in 1994 in Lviv, Ukraine. The band's vocalist and frontman is Svyatoslav Vakarchuk. In April 2007 Okean Elzy received ''FUZZ Magazine ...
. At the end of January 2019, Vakarchuk released a video in which he announced that he would not be running for president. Vakarchuk has said he does not back any of the candidates. According to an early March 2019 poll 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 types ...
64% of the electorate would have liked to see Vakarchuk among the presidential candidates. On 27 March 2019, Vakarchuk posted a video on his Facebook page calling on Ukrainians to think seriously about voting, and not to vote "for a laugh"; this was met with a response by the campaign team of presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who Vakarchuk's comments appeared to be directed towards. * Mykhailo Dobkin: People's Deputy of Ukraine, former Kharkiv mayor and Governor of Kharkiv Oblast.


Ukrainian television coverage

During the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, various Ukrainian television channels supported a candidate for President of Ukraine. Five groups supported Poroshenko: * Petro Poroshenko's Channel 5 and Pryamiy supported Poroshenko and were very critical of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Yulia Tymoshenko. *
Dmytro Firtash Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash ( uk, Дмитро́ Васи́льович Фі́рташ; born 2 May 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman who heads the board of directors of Group DF. He was highly influential during the Yuschenko administration and th ...
's very powerful Inter supported
Yuriy Boyko Yuriy Anatoliyovych Boyko ( uk, Юрій Анатолійович Бойко, russian: Ю́рий Анато́льевич Бо́йко; born 9 October 1958) is a Ukrainian politician who served as one of the Vice Prime Ministers of Ukraine betwe ...
and Poroshenko. * Rinat Akhmetov's TRK Ukraina, which is owned by Akhmetov's System Capital Management Holdings, supported Poroshenko,
Oleh Lyashko Oleh Valeriiovych Liashko ( uk, Олег Валерійович Ляшко; born. 3 December 1972) is a Ukrainian politician, journalist and soldier who was a long time member of the Verkhovna Rada and leader of the Radical Party. Liashko was e ...
, and Oleksandr Vilkul. Akhmetov's
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 ( ...
nominated Vilkul. * Pro-Russia Viktor Medvedchuk's Channel 112 and NewsOne supported Poroshenko, Lyashko, and Boyko. Medvedchuk's Opposition Platform — For Life nominated Boyko. The godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter is Vladimir Putin. * Petro Dyminskyi's
ZIK Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996), usually referred to as "Zik", was a Nigerian statesman and political leader who served as the first President of Nigeria from 1963 to 1966. Considered a driving force behind the n ...
supported Poroshenko's allies allowing them to explain their story while they were under investigation. Three TV groups were very critical of Poroshenko: *
Ihor Kolomoisky Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoyskyi ( uk, Ігор Валерійович Коломойський, translit=Ihor Valereriyovych Kolomoyskyi; he, איגור קולומויסקי; born 13 February 1963) is a Ukrainian-born billionaire, business magnat ...
's
1+1 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
media group supported Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zeleneskyy worked for Kolomoisky's channel. According to an analysis by Ukrainian NGO by September 2020 1+1 was not supporting (if not hostile too) Zelenskyy and his
Servant of the People party Servant of the People (SN; uk, Слуга народу, Sluha narodu, ) is a liberal, centrist, pro-European political party in Ukraine. It was formed in late 2017 and was officially registered on 31 March 2018 on the basis of the previously ...
. Detektor Media claimed it was instead promoting For the Future.Zelensky's team does not have completely loyal media and systematic PR - monitoring
Ukrayinska Pravda (25 September 2020)
* Andriy Sadovyi's Channel 24, supported Anatoliy Hrytsenko and opposed Poroshenko. * Pro-Russia Yevheniy Murayev's Nash TV supported pro-Russia Vilkul and was against Poroshenko but neutral to Tymoshenko and Lyashko. Under the state-owned National Public Broadcasting Company, UA:Pershyi was critical of Poroshenko.
Victor Pinchuk Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk ( uk, Віктор Михайлович Пінчук, ''Viktor Mykhailovych Pinchuk''; born 14 December 1960) is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. As of January 2016, ''Forbes'' ranked him as 1,250th on the list o ...
's ICTV, Novyi Kanal and STB were neutral.


Results

With a voter turnout of 62.8%, about 18.9 million people voted in the first round of elections on 31 March. Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Servant of the People and the incumbent President Petro Poroshenko both advanced to the second round of elections on 21 April. In the first round, Zelenskyy earned 30% of the votes compared to Poroshenko's 16%. Exit polls during the second round of voting predicted that Zelenskyy would win with more than 70% of the votes. With only 3% of the votes counted, the CEC confirmed similar preliminary results. Poroshenko conceded the results of the election in a speech soon after the polls closed and exit-poll data was released. He wrote on Twitter: "We succeeded to ensure free, fair, democratic and competitive elections... I will accept the will of Ukrainian people." According to the CEC, preliminary results with about 99.27% of the votes counted indicates that Zelenskyy received about 73.19% of the votes to the incumbent president's 24.48%. The final results for both second round candidates were 73.23% and 24.46%.


Reactions

Poroshenko tweeted that "a new inexperienced Ukrainian president... could be quickly returned to Russia's orbit of influence." Some of Zelenskyy's critics expressed concerns over his close ties with billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, doubting whether Zelenskyy would be able to stand up against the country's influential oligarchs and the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Several European Union nations offered their congratulations and hopes of continued partnerships in the future. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that Zelenskyy "will now truly be the Servant of the People." Similar sentiments were expressed by Andrzej Duda, President of Poland, Donald Tusk, the President of the
European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the E ...
, and NATO Secretary General
Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...
. Russia's deputy foreign minister,
Grigory Karasin Grigory Borisovich Karasin (russian: Григорий Борисович Карасин; born 23 August 1949) is a Russian career diplomat who formerly served as a State Secretary and a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Career ...
, stated that "The new leadership now must understand and realise the hopes of its electors" in both domestic and foreign policy. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Zelenskyy and thanked the Canadians among the observers overseeing the elections. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, called the president-elect to congratulate him and "the Ukrainian people for a peaceful nddemocratic election." A joint letter of congratulations was issued by both Tusk and
Jean Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...
, the President of the European Commission. The European Union (EU) leaders stated that they hoped Zelenskyy's victory would speed up the implementation of the remaining parts of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, including the
Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTA) are three free trade areas established between the European Union, and Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine respectively. The DCFTAs are part of each country's EU Association Agreement. They allow Geor ...
.


See also

*
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 ...
*
Opinion polling for the next Ukrainian presidential election In the run up to the 2024 Ukrainian presidential election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Ukraine. The results of such polls are displayed in this article. The date range for these polls are from the ...


References


External links

*
Central Election Commission
{{Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Presidential 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 fu ...
Presidential elections in Ukraine March 2019 events in Ukraine April 2019 events in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy Petro Poroshenko Yulia Tymoshenko