This article presents the historical development and role of political parties in Ukrainian politics, and outlines more extensively the significant modern political parties since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.
The Communist Party of Ukraine is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 and claimed to be the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine, which had been banned in 1991. In 2002 it held a "unification" congress when both "old and new" parties merged. The party is a member of the Moscow-based Union of Communist Parties, an umbrella organisation for all communist parties of the former Soviet Union. The party has been led by Petro Symonenko since it was founded.
For United Ukraine! was a political alliance and an electoral bloc in Ukraine founded in December 2001 to participate in the parliamentary election held on 31 March 2002.
The Verkhovna Rada, officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameral parliament of Ukraine.
The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc was the name of the bloc of political parties in Ukraine led by Yulia Tymoshenko since 2001. In November 2011, the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections was banned. The core party of the alliance, Batkivshchyna, remained a major force in Ukrainian politics.
The Party of Regions is a banned pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that became the largest party in Ukraine between 2006 and 2014.
The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland", referred to as Batkivshchyna, is a political party in Ukraine led by People's Deputy of Ukraine, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. As the core party of the former Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Batkivshchyna has been represented in the Verkhovna Rada since Yulia Tymoshenko set up the parliamentary faction of the same name in March 1999. After the November 2011 banning of the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections, Batkivshchyna became a major force in Ukrainian politics independently.
Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 26 March 2006. Election campaigning officially began on 7 July 2005. Between November 26 and 31 December 2005 party lists of candidates were formed.
Early presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 26 June 1994, with a second round on 10 July. They were held ahead of schedule following a compromise between President Leonid Kravchuk and the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. The elections saw Kravchuk defeated by his former Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma. They were the first presidential elections in the Commonwealth of Independent States in which the incumbent was defeated.
Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 October 1999, with a second round on 14 November. The result was a victory for Leonid Kuchma, who defeated Petro Symonenko in the run-off, winning a second consecutive presidential election.
Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 27 March 1994, with a second round between 2 and 10 April. These were the first parliamentary elections in Ukraine as an independent state. A total of 15 political parties won seats, although a majority of deputies were independents. However, 112 seats were remained unfilled, and a succession of by-elections were required in July, August, November and December 1994 and more in December 1995 and April 1996. Three hundred (300) seats or two thirds (2/3) of the parliament were required to be filled for the next convocation.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 30 September 2007. The election date was determined following agreement between the President Viktor Yushchenko, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Moroz on 27 May 2007, in an attempt to resolve the political crisis in Ukraine triggered by the 2 April 2007 presidential decree on dissolution of Ukraine's parliament.
The European Party of Ukraine is a Ukrainian political party registered by the Ministry of Justice on August 3, 2006. Its ideology is social-liberalism, when the state should maintain harmonious social relations: create appropriate conditions for free competition, to prevent the formation of market monopolies and protect the vulnerable population strata. They advocate reforms that they claim will increase social standards of life of Ukrainians to the European level. They support integration of Ukraine into the European Union. Initially, the party was headed by Mykola Moskalenko. In August 2013 the party had more than 5,000 members. The party did not take part in national elections since 2012.
The Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform of Vitali Klitschko is a political party in Ukraine headed by retired Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and WBC world heavyweight champion emeritus Vitali Klitschko. The party has been an observer member of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2013.
All-Ukrainian Association "Community", often simply known as Hromada, is a Ukrainian political party registered in March 1994 and reregistered in March 2005. The party's leader was formerly Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko.
Ivan Hryhorovych Kyrylenko is a Ukrainian politician and from 2007 till December 2011 faction leader of Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in the Ukrainian Parliament.
The 2010 Ukrainian local elections took place on 31 October 2010, two years before the 2012 general election. The voter turnout across Ukraine was about 50%, which is considered low in comparison to previous elections.
Snap presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 25 May 2014 and resulted in Petro Poroshenko being elected President of Ukraine. Originally scheduled to take place on 29 March 2015, the date was brought forward following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Poroshenko won the elections with 55% of the vote, enough to win in a single round. His closest competitor, Yulia Tymoshenko, received 13% of the vote. The Central Election Commission reported voter turnout over 60%, excluding the regions not under government control. Since Poroshenko obtained an absolute majority in the first round, a run-off second ballot was unnecessary.
Snap parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 26 October 2014 to elect members of the Verkhovna Rada. President Petro Poroshenko had pressed for early parliamentary elections since his victory in the presidential elections in May. The July breakup of the ruling coalition gave him the right to dissolve the parliament, so on 25 August 2014 he announced the early election.
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