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The 2006 Parliamentary crisis in Ukraine started in March 2006 as a result of inconclusive parliamentary elections, and ended on 3 August 2006 with Viktor Yanukovych (as part of the Alliance of National Unity) being chosen as a Prime Minister to replace Yuriy Yekhanurov, who resigned right after the parliamentary elections.
Many speculated that Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) might form a coalition with Our Ukraine party and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) to prevent the Party of Regions from gaining power. [1] Yulia Tymoshenko solicited to become prime minister. [1] However, negotiations with Our Ukraine and SPU faced many difficulties as the various blocs scrapped over posts and engaged in counter-negotiations with other groupings. [2] Apparently President Viktor Yushchenko did not want Tymoshenko to become Prime Minister. [3] Initially SPU's Oleksandr Moroz wanted the post of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. [3]
On Wednesday 21 June 2006, the Ukrainian media reported that the three parties had finally reached a coalition agreement, which appeared to have ended nearly three months of political uncertainty. [4] [5]
Tymoshenko's nomination and confirmation as new prime minister was expected to be straightforward. However, the nomination was preconditioned on an election of her long-term rival Petro Poroshenko from Our Ukraine as the speaker of the parliament. Tymoshenko stated that she would vote for any speaker from the coalition. [6] Within a few days after the coalition agreement had been signed, it became clear that the coalition members mistrusted each other, [6] since they considered it to be a deviation from parliamentary procedures in order to hold a simultaneous vote on Poroshenko as the speaker and Tymoshenko as prime minister. [7] [8]
The Party of Regions announced an ultimatum to the coalition, demanding that the parliamentary procedures be observed, asking membership in parliamentary committees to be allocated in proportion to seats held by each fraction, chairmanship in certain Parliamentary committees as well as Governorships in the administrative subdivisions won by the Party of Regions. [9] [10] The Party of Regions complained the coalition agreement deprived the Party of Regions and the communists of any representation in the executive and leadership in parliamentary committees while in the local regional councils won by the Party of Regions, the coalition parties were locked out of all committees as well. [9]
Members from the Party of Regions blocked the parliament from Thursday, 29 June [11] through Thursday, 6 July. [12]
Following a surprise nomination of Moroz as the Rada Chairman and his subsequent election late on 6 July with the support of the Party of Regions, the "Orange coalition" collapsed (Poroshenko had withdrawn his candidacy and had urged Moroz to do the same on 7 July [6] ). [13] [14] After the creation of a large coalition of majority (the so-called Alliance of National Unity), led by the former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych and composed of the Party of Regions, Socialists and Communists, Viktor Yanukovych became prime minister. [15] [16] Whilst Tymoshenko immediately announced that her political force would be in opposition to the new government, [17] after the signing of the Universal of National Unity Our Ukraine initially wanted to join this coalition and indeed five of its members where appointed Cabinet of Ministers in the coalition, but in October 2006 Our Ukraine joined the opposition. [18] [19] [20] [21] By November 2006 the five ministers where dismissed by parliament or withdrawn by Our Ukraine. [22] [23]
Following the 2007 Ukrainian political crisis new elections were called and held in 2007. [24]
The Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc was an electoral alliance active in Ukraine from 2001 until 2012, associated with former President Viktor Yushchenko. Since 2005, the bloc had been dominated by a core consisting of the People's Union "Our Ukraine" party and five smaller partner parties. On 17 November 2011, the Ukrainian Parliament approved an election law that banned the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections. Since then several members of the Bloc have since merged with other parties.
The Socialist Party of Ukraine was a social democratic and democratic socialist political party in Ukraine. It was one of the oldest parties in Ukraine and was created by former members of the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine in late 1991, when the Communist Party was banned.
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.
Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards the West, European Union and NATO.
Elections in Ukraine are held to choose the president, Verkhovna Rada (legislature), and local governments. Referendums may be held on special occasions. Ukraine has a multi-party system, often no single party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko is a Ukrainian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005, and again from 2007 until 2010; the first and only woman in Ukraine to hold that position. She has been a member of the Verkhovna Rada as People's Deputy of Ukraine several times between 1997 and 2007, and presently as of 2014, and was First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for the fuel and energy complex from 1999 to 2001. She is a Candidate of Economic Sciences.
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Moroz is a Ukrainian politician. He was the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada twice, from 1994 to 1998 and again from 2006 to 2007. Moroz is one of the founders and the leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, formerly an influential political party in Ukraine. Moroz lost parliamentary representation when the Socialist Party failed to secure sufficient number of votes (2.86%) in the 2007 snap parliamentary election, falling 0.14% short of the 3% election threshold.
Yuriy Vitaliyovych Lutsenko is a Ukrainian politician, Ukrainian Interior Minister and member in the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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.
Ukraine – Forward! is a social democratic political party in Ukraine. From its registration in December 1998 until March 2012 it was named Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. The party has, according to official figures, about 86,000 party members. The official name of the party is: Party of Natalia Korolevska "Ukraine – Forward!"
Yuriy Ivanovych Yekhanurov is a Ukrainian politician who was Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2005 to 2006 and Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2009.
The Second Yanukovych Government was a governing coalition of the Party of Regions, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party in Ukraine after the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election and the 2006 Ukrainian political crisis. Until 24 March 2007, it was known as the Anti-Crisis Alliance.
Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer who served two terms as Prime Minister of Ukraine – from 27 February 2014 to 27 November 2014 and from 27 November 2014 to 14 April 2016. The youngest foreign affairs minister in Ukraine's history.
The political crisis in Ukraine lasted from April to June 2007 was part of political stand off between coalition and opposition factions of Verkhovna Rada that led to the unscheduled 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election. It started on 2 April 2007 as a culmination of long lasting crisis and degradation of the parliamentary coalition when the President of Ukraine attempted to dissolve the parliament.
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 2008 Ukrainian political crisis started after President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (NU-NS) withdrew from the governing coalition following a vote on a bill to limit the President's powers in which the Prime Minister's Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) voted with the opposition Party of Regions. The bill would have required the consent of the Prime Minister for the appointment and dismissal of the Prosecutor General by the President, given the government power to appoint local heads of government if the President rejects the candidates, stripped from the President the right to reject a candidate for Prime Minister, dismiss the Defense, Interior and Foreign Ministers, and appoint a head of the State Intelligence Service. President Yushchenko stated that a clear position on the 2008 Russo-Georgian War was one of the conditions under which return to talks in the Parliament was possible, as well as the repeal of all the constitutional laws adopted after 3 September. Yushchenko claimed that a "de-facto coalition" was formed with 'no other aims but to conduct coup d'état and usurp power in the country'. Tymoshenko stated that the real intentions behind the President's party in 'declaring war on her' was to ensure his victory in the next presidential election, although she still called for a reformation of the coalition between the two parties. She also reiterated her position on the Georgian conflict, claiming to be neutral and more in line with the European Union.
The second Tymoshenko Government was appointed on 18 December 2007 as a coalition between Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) and Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc (OU-PSD), OU-PSD is the party of then-President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, following the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election. The government program was named: "Ukrainian breakthrough: for people, not for politicians".
The first Azarov government was Ukraine's cabinet from its appointment on March 11, 2010 until its dissolution on December 3, 2012. It continued to serve as a caretaker government until 24 December 2012, when the second Azarov government was appointed by president Viktor Yanukovych.
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.
The first Azarov government was Ukraine's cabinet from March 2010 until December 2012, when the second Azarov government was appointed by president Viktor Yanukovych.