The Ukrainian parliamentary election of 2012 took place on 28 October 2012.[1] Because of various reasons, including the "impossibility of announcing election results" various by-elections have taken place since.[2][3][4][5] Hence, several constituencies have been left unrepresented at various times.[2][6][7][8]
Unlike the two previous elections, this election used a mixed voting system (50% under party lists and 50% under simple-majorityconstituencies)[9] with a 5% election threshold and the participation of blocs of political parties was not allowed any more.[10] The method of 50/50 mixed elections was used previously in 1998 and 2002.[11]
A majority is the greater part, or more than half, of the total. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements.
The electoral threshold is the minimum share of the primary vote which a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to any representation in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ways. For example, in party-list proportional representation systems an election threshold requires that a party must receive a specified minimum percentage of votes, either nationally or in a particular electoral district, to obtain any seats in the legislature. In multi-member constituencies using preferential voting, besides the electoral threshold, to be awarded a seat, a candidate is also required to achieve a quota, either on the primary vote or after distribution of preferences, which depends on the number of members to be return from a constituency.
Ukraine, sometimes called the Ukraine, is a country in Eastern Europe. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Kiev. Ukrainian is the official language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religions in the country are Eastern Orthodoxy and Greek Catholicism. Ukraine is currently in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi), making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world.
The Ukrainian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.
The Party of Regions won the largest number of seats while Fatherland (with several parties together as an "umbrella" party) came second.[15] The election was also noted for the rise of the far-right party Svoboda, which came in fourth.[15] The new (on the national scene) party UDAR also enjoyed noticeable great success with its third place in the election.[15] The Communist Party of Ukraine almost tripled its numbers of voters but because of the mixed election system used in the election it only won five more seats compared with the previous election.[15] Because of this mixed system three small parties and 43 unaffiliated politicians also made it into parliament.[15]
The Party of Regions is a pro-Russia political party of Ukraine created in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of Ukraine between 2006 and 2014. Since the February 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the party has not competed in elections and most of its representatives have left the party to continue their careers in other parties. Best known former party members are former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych; both fled to Russia in February 2014.
The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland", often referred to as Batkivshchyna even in English, is a Ukrainian political party led by Yulia Tymoshenko. The party has been an observer member of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2008.
The Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform was a political party in Ukraine headed by retired Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and the WBC world heavyweight champion emeritus Vitali Klitschko. It merged into the Petro Poroshenko Bloc on 28 August 2015. However, in 2017 UDAR was still registered as a political party and it employed two persons. The party is an observer member of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2013.
The new parliament was appointed and started its tasks on 12 December 2012 – six weeks after the elections.[16][17]
On October 8, 2008 Ukrainian PresidentViktor Yushchenko tried to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) and called early parliamentary elections in Ukraine for the second time in as many years[18] for December 7, 2008.[19][20][21][22] The right of the President to dismiss the parliament was challenged in Ukraine's Constitutional Court. The President's decree has since lapsed as it was never put into action[23] (the coalition supporting the second Tymoshenko Government was extended) and appeals to Ukraine's Constitutional Court were withdrawn. Nevertheless, a snap election was predicted by Ukrainian politicians during the 2010 presidential election and after the dismissal of the second Tymoshenko Government.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] One of the arguments against holding early elections were the costs.[39] Early elections were (in October 2008) estimated to cost approximately UAH₴417 million[40] (about EUR€60 million or US$80 million).[41]
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a Ukrainian politician who was the third President of Ukraine from January 23, 2005, to February 25, 2010.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine is the sole body of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine interprets the Constitution of Ukraine in terms of laws and other legal acts.
2012 election date set
On February 1, 2011 the Verkhovna Rada set the election date for October 28, 2012.[1][42] Several deputies whose votes were registered that day have stated they could not have taken part in voting because they were not in Kiev (where the Verkhovna Rada building is located) on February 1, 2011.[42][43] Voting by MPs in the place of absent MPs of the Verkhovna Rada is prohibited by law.[42] On July 27, 2012 the Central Election Commission of Ukraine announced that campaigning for the elections would commence on July 30.[44]
Changes in the voting system
Number of single-mandate constituencies per oblast compared with year 2002.
Map of single-mandate okruhi (districts) in elections.
In June, 2011 the Venice Commission reviewed a proposed Draft Law on the election of Ukrainian parliamentary members.[45] The proposal sought to re-instate a parallel voting system – used in the 1998 and 2002 elections[46] – with the establishment of 225 local single-member districts elected (in one round)[47] by a first-past-the-post electoral system (candidate with the highest vote total wins); and the remaining 225 parliamentary seats being elected nationwide on a proportional party-list system[45] with a 5% support threshold; and excluding political blocs from all elections.[48] The option "Vote against all" was also made defunct in the proposal[48][49] (according to a November 2012 opinion poll by Research & Branding Group (otherwise) 17% of the voters would have voted "against everybody" during the elections).[50] The opposition and Ukrainian analysts accused the Party of Regions of "rewriting the law so that the president could secure a majority in the next Verkhovna Rada."[49][51] In October 2011 the Venice Commission recommended Ukraine should not return to a mixed election system.[52] Nevertheless, on 17 November 2011 the Ukrainian Parliament approved an election law almost identical to the June 2011 proposed Draft Law.[9][10] This new law satisfied the major opposition parties Batkivschyna and Front for Change; but was condemned by the core party of Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc, Our Ukraine.[53][54][55] Candidates could be elected on party lists or through self-nomination.[9] On 8 December 2011 PresidentViktor Yanukovych signed the new election law.[56] Since then several parties merged with other parties.[57][58][59]
The possibility to be simultaneously be nominated on a nationwide party list and in a single mandate constituency also was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on 10 April 2012.[60]
Voters could temporarily change their place of voting without changing their permanent voting address.[61]
From 2011 to 2013 with liaison to Serhiy Lyovochkin, Alan Friedman, Eckart Sager, who was a one time CNN producer, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's senior aide Konstantin Kilimnik devised a strategy to discredit Yulia Tymoshenko along with Hillary Clinton who had been an outspoken critic of pro-Russia, pro-Kremlin, and pro-Putin supporters in Ukraine.[62] Manafort's Global Endeavour Inc., a St. Vincent and Grenadines based consulting and lobbying company, his Lucicle Consultants Ltd., a Cyprus based consulting company, and three other of his companies were hired to provide support to Yanukovich and his Party of Regions.[63][64][65] This strategy included: creating a fake think tank in Vienna, the Center for the Study of Former Soviet Socialist Republics (CXSSR), to support Yanukovich and his Party of Regions; using a social media blitz with Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, and altering the Google's search stack to disseminate articles and videos that undermine opponents of the Party of Regions and Yanukovich in Europe and the United States; rewriting wikipedia articles to smear Yanukovich opponents especially Tymoshenko; and using Breitbart News, RedState, and an article in the Wall Street Journal to discredit the ObamaState Department and the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.[62] Alan Friedman, who had not registered as a foreign agent in the United States, told Kostyantyn Gryshchenko that Friedman, who often wrote using the pen nameMatthew Lina, published dozens of positive stories about the Party of Regions and Yanukovich and ensured that these were disseminated to over 2,000 publications and placed at the top of Google search stacks.[62] Known as the Tymoshenko Files, Friedman sent Manafort a highly confidential two page letter detailing Friedman's efforts and that Friedman would claim to be Inna Bohoslovska to ghost pen articles on her behalf.[62] In October 2012 after Hillary Clinton had supported Tymoshenko, Brietbart News released an article calling Hillary Clinton a “neo-Nazi Frankenstein”.[62][66][67][68]
Candidates and analysts predicted that bribery to secure votes would be rampant.[61][69][70] A March 2012 poll by Research & Branding Group showed that 66% of the respondents believed that the election would not be fair, 18% disagreed with that.[71] Following the elections the parties Fatherland, UDAR and Svoboda filled in an appeal at the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CVK) with allegations of fraud in 13 simple-majorityconstituencies.[72] Irregularities in the elections like cases of ballot stuffing, carousel voting, suspiciously high voter turnout and bribed voters have been reported.[73][74] On 30 October 2012 the Committee of Voters of Ukraine stated that the elections saw a record number of cases of bribery of voters.[75] They also insisted the elections had not brought the country closer to democratic standards.[75] And that although there were no grounds to believe that the violations that were reported on polling day could affect the election results, the election results could seriously be affected by violations during the counting of votes.[75]
According to Opora the most common violations of the electoral law during the election campaign in August were using government resources for partisan purposes and vote buying.[76] According to Opora the Party of Regions committed the most violations of the electoral law.[77] On 28 October 2012 Party of Regions itself claimed to have documented 607 violations of the election legislation by its opponents.[78] In June 2012 the Committee of Voters of Ukraine declared that the use of government resources for partisan ends would not be decisive in the (then upcoming) elections.[79] According to Taras KuzioBerkut riot police was used in attempts to destroy ballots.[80]
On 1 November 2012 the Deputy Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CVK), Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, stated that the elections are heavily falsified.[81] She indicated that several electoral districts clearly demonstrate a depravity of the single-constituency district elections in Ukraine and that as of 1 November CVK still had not received results from 14 electoral districts. According to her that was the main reason why CVK could not announce the complete results of the elections on the scheduled time, 31 October 2012.[82]
In mid-February 2012 Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko deputy Roman Zabzalyuk stated that "if the results on Election Day can’t be sufficiently fixed" the Party of Regions had already made plans to bribedeputies to join the Party of Regions after their election into the Parliament; representatives of the Party of Regions denied allegations of bribery or plans to fix the election.[83]
Issues at districts
Kiev and its region
A notably reported scandal took place at the electoral district 215 where initially a win was awarded to the acting chairman of the Kiev city council Halyna Hereha.[84] After the results were challenged it was decided to recount the votes with about 30 law enforcement personnel to keep public order.[85] Later everything was resolved and cleared that indeed the votes between the two candidates Hereha (independent) and Andriy Illyenko ("Svoboda") were switched around.[86] On November 1, 2012 Halyna Hereha officially complained about the elections, but does not intend to take it to court.[87]
To another electoral district 211 in Kiev was sent an ambulance as a deputy chairman of the district electoral commission had a nervous breakdown. The commission of the district for three days had a difficult time to count all the votes.[88][89]
Another big scandal with involvement of the riot law enforcement unit of Berkut took place at the 95th electoral district (a Kievan suburban city of Irpin). The electoral commission at the district was the slowest and the public involvement surely did not help to speed up the process, however a possible miscounting was prevented.[90] Previously, a possible riot from a big "youth group of athletic posture" was suspected by witnesses.[91]
Another scandal took place at the 223rd district where some fist fighting took place, which was eventually extinguished with the help of law enforcement.[92]Oleh Tyahnybok told Ukrayinska Pravda that "Svoboda" will be picketing "EpiCenter" supermarkets and apartments of the 223rd electoral district commission members.[93] Because of the incident, the Radio Liberty (Radio Svoboda) conducts a live broadcasting from the headquarters of the district. In protest the district electoral commission refuses to continue its work.[94][95]
Southern Ukraine
At the 132nd district (Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast) peasants laid a siege around the building of the district electoral commission in the protest of post-electoral results.[96]
Repeat elections in 5 constituencies
The Central Election Commission of Ukraine adopted a resolution on November 5 recognizing the impossibility of announcing election results in five single-seat constituencies (electoral districts 94, 132, 194, 197 and 223); it also recognized the need to hold repeat elections in these constituencies and asked parliament to take a decision on holding repeat elections in these constituencies.[4] On November 6 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution that proposed repeat elections.[4] On 8 November the Central Election Commission stated that the Verkhovna Rada should thus make a respective law for this and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should determine the amount of funding for these elections.[97]
On 29 December 2012, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine received a query from 54 Verkhovna Rada members concerning procedures for the five repeat elections.[98] As of 21 March 2013 the Constitutional Court has not opened a case on this issue.[98] The current Verkhovna Rada parliamentary majority refused to consider the scheduling of repeated elections in the five constituencies before the court issues its ruling on this issue.[98]
On 5 September 2013 the Verkhovna Rada set the date of (all, see below) 7 re-elections to 15 December 2013.[99]
Repeat elections in 2 more constituencies
In early February 2013 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine ordered the Central Election Commission of Ukraine to hold new elections in 2 more districts after the court removed the deputy mandates of United Centre member Pavlo Baloha (at the time a member of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction) and independentOleksandr Dombrovsky.[100] The Administrative Court established that the results in single-member districts number 11 (Vinnytsia Oblast; Dombrovsky) and number 71 (Zakarpattia Oblast; Baloha) after the 2012 elections had been "unreliable".[100] On 3 July 2013 Baloha's and Dombrovsky's mandates were officially cancelled.[6]
On 5 September 2013 the Verkhovna Rada set the date of (all, see above) 7 re-elections to 15 December 2013.[99]
By-election in constituency 224 (Sevastopol)
On 24 December 2012 President Viktor Yanukovych appointed Pavlo Lebedyev as Defense Minister.[101] Lebedyev had been elected as a lawmaker in the single-seat constituency No.224 (in Sevastopol) in the 2012 election (28 October 2012).[101] On 22 March 2013 the Verkhovna Rada cancelled his parliamentary mandate.[101][102] The by-election for the single-seat constituency No.224 was held on 7 July 2013 and won by independentVadim Novinsky with 53.41% with a turnout of 23.91%.[101][103] Before the election Novinsky had stated he would join the Party of Regions if he won.[104]
Repeat elections in constituency 133 (Odessa)
On 12 September 2013 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine (under a lawsuit lodged by Yuriy Karmazin) ruled it impossible to reliably establish the results of the 28 October 2012 elections in single-mandate constituency No. 133 (in Odessa),[105] at the time Ihor Markov had been declared winner of that constituency.[106] The court overturned the Central Election Commission (CEC) decision of 23 November 2012 regarding Markov’s registration as a People's Deputy of Ukraine and ordered the CEC to take measures to organize, prepare for and hold repeat elections in constituency No. 133.[106]
Police officers had documented the use of pens with disappearing ink in at least 40 polling stations in constituency No. 133 on 28 October 2012.[106]
Repeat elections in five constituencies of 15 December 2013
The Central Election Commission of Ukraine finalized the vote count on 12 November 2012 but simultaneously ordered – on recommendation of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) – repeat elections in five troubled single-mandate constituencies where it could not establish results.[2] Because of occurrences in these five constituencies.[3][4][97] In February 2013 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine ordered to hold (additional) new elections in 2 more districts after the court removed the mandates of two seats.[100][5] On 5 September 2013 the Verkhovna Rada itself set the date of these 7 re-elections to 15 December 2013.[99] Hence, before 15 December 2013 of the 450 seats in parliament 443 deputies have been elected.[2][7][8][6] But eventually only repeat elections were held in 5 constituencies on 15 December 2013.[107]
Andriy Klyuyev was the chief campaign manager for the Party of Regions.[114] The Party of Regions' campaign focused heavily on promoting its record as the ruling party, contrasting the "stability" of the (then current) Azarov Government with "chaos" during the Second Tymoshenko Government in 2007–10 (which it referred to as: "the chaos and ruins of 5 years of orange leadership",.[115][7] It advocated a "balanced" approach to developing relations with Russiaand the West, saying neither should be given priority over the other.[7]
UDAR avoided sensitive and polarising subjects and focused instead on popular topics, such as more empowerment to ordinary Ukrainians and a ruthless campaign against corruption, the indifference of the authorities, the lack of local governance, inequality and poverty.[7][116]
Svoboda softened their rhetoric in the campaign but nevertheless promised to shake up the country's political status quo.[116][117]
One of the biggest spenders of the campaign was the party Ukraine – Forward!.[118][119] One of their election billboards claimed that “an average wage of EUR€1,000 and a pension of €500” was realistic for Ukraine (the monthly average wage was €300 at the time).[120]
Many candidates in single-seat constituencies tended to focus on local issues, often distancing themselves from party agendas.[7]
Overall the election programs of the major parties bore many similarities; all pledged reforms to spur economic growth, higher wages, pensions and other benefits, better education and medical care.[7]
Two weeks before the (28 October) election UDAR withdrew 26 of its candidates running in single-member constituencies in favour of Fatherland candidates and they withdrew 26 parliamentary candidates in favor of UDAR in an attempt to maximise votes for the opposition.[121]
Costs
Political parties spent more than US$75 million on the election campaign in multi-member constituencies (according to the parties' official reports).[122] The Party of Regions spent about US$27 million, Fatherland more than $13 million, UDAR more than $4 million, the Communist Party of Ukraine $9 million, Our Ukraine $8 million and Ukraine – Forward! $7.6 million.[122]Svoboda claimed it had spent US$3 million on the campaign.[123] The Ukraine of the Future did not spend anything on campaigning yet still managed to take the 15th spot amongst the 21 parties who participated in the nationwide list with 0.18% of the votes.[123]
Denys Kovrizhenko of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems – Ukraine stated the sum of money spend could be up to 10 times more than what parties report afterwards.[124] According to OPORA “In general, candidates spend about three times more than they officially report to spend”.[124] Political scientist Artem Bidenko estimated other figures; he believed that the Party of Regions had spent around $850 million, Ukraine – Forward some $150 million, and the election campaigns of the rest of the political parties $350 million, while candidates in majority constituencies had spent some $900 million on the election campaign.[125] About half of the single-constituency candidates submitted reports about their campaign spending.[124]
In October 2008 Ukrainian experts estimated that a small political party who wants to win seats in parliament would spend up to US$30 million on the campaign and large political parties would spend up to $100 million.[126] Political analyst Pavlo Bulhak stated then that a party's election budget will be spent on advertising on television, bribing voters, organizing rallies and party propaganda.[126]
Results
Level protocol handles on October 30, 2012; 1:30 pm
The leaders in multi-member districts by constituency
Leaders in single-mandate constituencies
On 8 November the Central Election Commission of Ukraine completed and released all results of the nationwide party list the constituencies (the elections took place on 28 October).[3] Meanwhile, the Central Election Commission refused to establish the election results for the first-past-post results in 5 constituencies.[97] The Central Election Commission of Ukraine finalized the vote count on 12 November 2012 but simultaneously ordered - on recommendation of the Verkhovna Rada - repeat elections (on a yet unknown date) in five troubled single-mandate constituencies where it could not establish results.[2] Because of occurrences in these five constituencies.[3][4][97] Hence, on 12 November 2012 445 deputies had been elected of the 450 seats in parliament.[2][7] On 8 February 2013 the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukrainedeprived 2 more deputies of power.[6] They were banned from parliament on 3 July 2013.[6] On 5 September 2013 the Verkhovna Rada itself set the date of all 7 re-elections to 15 December 2013.[99]
recognized as invalidThe Central Election Commission of Ukraine adopted a resolution on November 5 recognizing the impossibility of announcing parliament election results in five single-seat constituencies (electoral districts 94, 132, 194, 197 and 223) and it recognized the need to hold repeat elections in these constituencies and asked parliament to take a decision on holding repeat elections in these constituencies.[4] On November 6 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution that proposesed that.[4] On 8 November the Central Election Commission stated that the Verkhovna Rada then should make a respective law for this and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should determine the amount of funding for these elections.[97] February 8, 2013 the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine deprived people's deputies Baloha and Dombrovsk (electoral districts 11 and 71) of their mandates of which they were stripped on July 3, 2013.[6] On 12 September 2013 the same court deprived deputy Ihor Markov (electoral district 133) of his mandate.
Several lawmakers elected into the new parliament have family ties with other lawmakers or other family members in the executive branch of Ukrainian politics.[130]
Turnout
Turnout by oblast
The total voter turnout in the election was 57.99%;[74] about average for parliamentary elections in Ukraine.[15][116] On election day turnout had reached 22.43% by noon local time.[131] The number of reported participating voters varied somewhere between 20.76 million and 20.78 million,[132][133] while the number of invalid ballots accumulated to about 1.2 million (5.74%) for party list voting and voting at districts.[133]
The lowest turnout was in Crimea (with 49.46%), the highest in Lviv Oblast (67.13%).[74] Local disparities in turnout did occur: for example, the voting turnout figures in two adjacent districts in Donetsk were 39.8% and 84.5%.[15]
Prime MinisterMykola Azarov and President Yanukovych praised the elections; Azarov claimed “neither democratic norms nor legal democratic procedures were in fact violated” and according to Yanukovych the elections "took place well from the technical viewpoint".[141]
Party leader Petro Symonenko of the Communist Party of Ukraine believed on 8 November that the new parliament could not work better than the present one, as "there will be a confrontation between the financial, political and clan groups who got seats in the new parliament."[142] He also stated then that his party will not form any coalition with other groups in the new parliament.[142]
Civil movement "Chesno" stated on 5 December 2012 that 331 out of the 450 deputies elected on 28 October fell short of its criteria for honesty; according to "Chesno"'s parameters, 114 of them violated the rights and freedoms of citizens, 30 earlier changed their political position while working in parliament or on local councils, 233 had been involved in corrupt practices, 185 had nontransparent incomes and expenses, 156 did not personally take part in voting in previous parliaments, and 101 had shirked work in parliament.[143]
Party of Regions politician Sergei Tigipko stated in December 2012 "the parliamentary elections showed that politics in Ukraine is becoming more ideological".[144]
On election day (28 October) there were 3,500 accredited foreign observers.[116] The observers from the European Academy for Elections Observation (most of whom where European Parliament members), stated it was "a good election, not perfect but clearly acceptable",[149] and that it was "in compliance with democratic norms".[149] On 29 October the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) (who had monitored the election with 600 observers)[116] stated in a preliminary report[150] that "certain aspects of the pre-election period constituted a step backwards compared with recent national elections" and that the election was marred by "the abuse of power and the excessive role of money".[15][149] It complained of "a lack of a level playing field, caused primarily by the abuse of administrative resources, lack of transparency of campaign and party financing, and lack of balanced media coverage".[149] This contrasted sharply with the international observers' conclusions on Ukraine's February 2010 presidential election, judged then to have been transparent, unbiased and an "impressive display" of democracy.[149]
Ten thousand foreign observers where expected to observe the elections.[127] Some 100 long term observers from OSCE member states arrived in Ukraine starting from the middle of September 2012, followed by 600 short-term observers who will arrive a week before the elections to monitor the election process at voting stations.[127]
The total number of registered observers on October 9, was 1053 persons.[153] The largest mission of international observers from CIS-EMO was 197 people.[154]
On 2 October 2012 CIS-EMO observers presented the Interim report of the CIS-EMO Election Monitoring Mission.[155] The report, in particular, noted that "The majority of detected violations are connected not with a political struggle of party lists but with the struggle of single-seat candidates". An impression that “antidemocratic power” clash with “democratic opposition” imposed by European and world society has a very relative nature that, as a rule, doesn’t distinct the real situation. In nowadays Ukrainian “peripheral capitalism” model such classes as “power” and “opposition” are conventionality. When the “Power Elite” is unconsolidated and disconnected and there is an open internal war between leading financial-industrial groups and corporations of Ukraine to get leverage of real state authority, all existing political parties only play the role of institutionalized political framework of realization of oligarchs’ economic interests.[156]
The ENEMO (European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations) mission for the 2012 parliamentary elections in Ukraine began its work on 23 July 2012 with the arrival of four Core Team members. ENEMO is the first international election observation mission registered for the Parliamentary Elections 2012 by the Central Election Commission (CEC). 35 LTOs (long-term observers) arrived to Kyiv on 5 August 2012 and were deployed throughout Ukraine. Long-term observer teams cover one or two oblasts of Ukraine. On E-day, October 28, ENEMO deployed 43 STO (Short-term observer) teams throughout all oblasts of Ukraine.
Factions in parliament after elections
According to the amendment to parliamentary regulations adopted in November 2012, the smallest faction of parliament can be formed out a party with the smallest number of deputies elected by a party list and a single constituency vote.[161][162] That amendment to regulations can also be interpreted as "either or" meaning that the smallest faction can be formed either based on party list or a single constituency election. In that case the smaller parties' deputies that were elected to the parliament will be able to form factions of their own, making it more challenging to form a coalition in the Ukrainian parliament.[163]
On 27 November 2012 Party of Regions parliamentary leader Oleksandr Yefremov claimed that 223 members of the Verkhovna Rada had already expressed their desire to work in his party's fraction; according to earlier press reports 38 of the 43 unaffiliated politicians elected into parliament would join the Party of Regions faction.[164]
Note: The parties United Centre (3 seats), People's Party (2 seats), Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko (1 seat) and Union (1 seat) did not form their own faction. Their deputies did not join any faction besides 1 deputy of People's Party who became a member of the Party of Regions faction in December 2012[165] and Union's deputy joined the then newly created faction For Peace and Stability on 2 July 2014.[170][171]
The Communist Party of Ukraine faction was dissolved 24 July 2014 two days after parliament had changed its regulations.[172]
Removing deputies from parliament after 2012 election
Note that on 17 November 2011 the Ukrainian Parliament approved an election law under which 225 members of Parliament would be elected under party lists and 225 would be winners of constituencies.[10] Simultaneously the option to vote "Against all" had been made defunct;[9] furthermore candidates could be elected on party lists or through self-nomination.[9]
* In 2006 political parties or election blocs needed to collect at least 3% of the national vote for all parties in order to gain seats in parliament. In November 2011 this election threshold was raised to 5% and simultaneously the participation of blocs of political parties was banned.[10]
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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.
Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 25 May 2014, resulting in Petro Poroshenko being elected President of Ukraine. Originally scheduled to take place on 29 March 2015, the date was changed following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Poroshenko won the elections with 54.7% of the votes, enough to win in a single round. His closest competitor was Yulia Tymoshenko, who emerged with 12.81% of the votes. The Central Election Commission reported voter turnout at over 60% excluding those regions not under government control. Since Poroshenko obtained an absolute majority in the first round, a run-off second ballot was unnecessary.
The 7th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada is the previous session of the legislative branch of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament. Its composition was based on the results of the 2012 parliamentary election. Half of the seats in the parliament were apportioned between the five winning parties based on the popular vote, while the other half was apportioned between 4 parties and 44 independents between 225 constituencies throughout the country. It first met in the capital Kiev on December 12, 2012 and ended its session on November 27, 2014 after the 8th Verkhovna Rada began its first session.
Opposition Bloc is a Ukrainian political party that was founded in 2014 as six parties that did not endorse Euromaidan merged. Legally, the party was created by renaming the lesser-known party Leading force.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 8th convocation is the current convocation of the legislative branch of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament. The 8th convocation meets at the Verkhovna Rada building in Kiev, having begun its term on November 27, 2014 following the last session of the 7th Verkhovna Rada. Its term will last five years and is scheduled to close its last session on November 27, 2019.
