Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

The President is elected by popular vote to serve a 5-year term. In the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) 450 members are allocated on a proportional basis to parties with at least 4% of the total vote to serve 4-year terms.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

WANT MORE ELECTION RELATED STATS FOR UKRAINE? Go to "election databases" on the left-hand menu of this page OR comparative data on the right-hand menu and choose your area of interest.

Orange Revolution

(courtesy of wikipedia)

The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was compromised by massive corruption, voter intimidation and direct electoral fraud. The Ukrainian capital was the focal point of the movement with thousands of protesters demonstrating daily in Kiev. Nationwide, the democratic revolution was highlighted by a series of acts of civil disobedience, sit-ins, and general strikes organized by the opposition movement.

The protests were prompted by reports from several domestic and foreign election monitors as well as the widespread public perception that the results of the run-off vote of November 21, 2004 between leading candidates Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych were rigged by the authorities in favor of the latter. The nationwide protests succeeded when the results of the original run-off were annulled, and a revote was ordered by Ukraine's Supreme Court for December 26, 2004. Under intense scrutiny by domestic and international observers, the second run-off was declared to be "fair and free". The final results showed a clear victory for Yushchenko, who received about 52 percent of the vote, compared to Yanukovych's 44 percent. Yushchenko was declared the official winner and with his inauguration on January 23, 2005 in Kiev, the Orange Revolution has peacefully reached its successful conclusion.

Previous elections

In the last parliamentary elections held on 26 March, 2006, the Party of Regions won 32,14 % of the votes, followed by the Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko (22,29%). The Bloc „Our Ukraine” gained  13,95% of the votes. From the 45 politicial parties and blocs which were registered for the elections, the Socialist Party of Ukraine (5,69%) and the Communist Party of Ukraine (3,66%) had also passed the 3 percent electoral threshold necessary to win a seat in Verkhovna Rada. For more information please visit the website of the Central Election Commission.

The OSCE/ODIHR international election observation missions reported that the last parliamentary elections in Ukraine were conducted in compliance with most international standards for democratic elections. The final report of the OSCE/ODIHR is available here and you can also read the report of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine about the electoral process (the report is available in Russian). The European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) has also noted significant improvement in the electoral process over the 2004 presidential elections in its report.    

Pre-term parliamentary elections on 30 September, 2007

The pre-term parliamentary elections were held under the agreement made between the President, Prime Minister and the Speaker of Parliament in May, 2007 to end the political crisis which developed between the President and the ruling government in spring 2007. You can read more information about the political context of these elections here.

The legal framework for holding elections was also modified following the adoption of amendments to the Law on the Election of People’s Deputies on 1 June, 2007. The new law is available here.