1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election

1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election

← 1994 29 March 1998 2002 →
All 450 seats to the Verkhovna Rada 226 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	70.78% ( 5.03 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Petro Symonenko Viacheslav Chornovil Oleksandr Moroz Party KPU Rukh SPU–SelPU Leader since 19 June 1993 4 December 1992 1 November 1997 Leader's seat Party list Party list Kyiv 92 [uk] Last election 86 seats, 13.57% 20 seats, 5.49% 33 seats, 6.23% Seats won 121 46 34 Seat change 35 26 1 Popular vote 6,550,353 2,498,262 2,273,788 Percentage 25.44% (PR) 9.70% (PR) 8.83% (PR) Swing 11.87% 4.21% 2.60%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Anatoliy Matviyenko Pavlo Lazarenko Vitaliy Kononov Party NDP Hromada Party of Greens Leader since 24 February 1996 22 March 1994 9 October 1992 Leader's seat Vinnytsia 17 [uk] Dnipropetrovsk 40 [uk] Party list Last election New New 0 seats 0.27% Seats won 28 24 19 Seat change New New 19 Popular vote 1,331,460 1,242,235 1,444,264 Percentage 5.17% (PR) 4.82% (PR) 5.61% (PR) Swing New New 5.34%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Leonid Kravchuk Nataliya Vitrenko Kateryna Vashchuk Party SDPU(o) PSPU Agrarian Party Leader since January 1998[1] 20 April 1996 March 1997 Leader's seat Party list Sumy 160 [uk] Volyn 20 [uk] Last election New New New Seats won 17 16 9 Seat change New New New Popular vote 1,066,113 1,075,118 978,330 Percentage 4.14% (PR) 4.18% (PR) 3.80% (PR) Swing New New New
Party-list results Constituency results
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada before election Oleksandr Moroz SPU–SelPU Elected Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Tkachenko SPU–SelPU

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Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 29 March 1998.^[2] The Communist Party of Ukraine remained the largest party in the Verkhovna Rada, winning 121 of the 445 seats.^[3]

After the election votes in five electoral districts had too many irregularities to declare a winner and the parliament was five members short of 450.

In comparison to the first parliamentary election, this time half of 450 parliament seats were filled by single-seat majority winners in 225 electoral regions (constituencies), and the other half were split among political parties and blocks^[4] that received at least 4% of the popular vote.^[5]

The Communist Party of Ukraine was victorious in 18 regions including the city of Kyiv, while in three other regions the party finished in second place. The People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) won in five regions, all of them located in Western Ukraine and was a strong runner-up in three others, mostly in the west and Kyiv. The electoral block of Socialists and Peasants was able to secure a victory in only two regions, however it did finish strong in seven other regions across central Ukraine. The new and rising party of Hromada won the Dnipropetrovsk Region, while the Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine managed to secure the Zakarpattia Region.

Notable and strong runners up were the Party of Greens, the People's Democratic Party, the Progressive Socialist Party, the People's Party, Working Ukraine, the National Front and Our Ukraine.

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Communist Party of Ukraine	6,550,353	25.44	84	3,495,711	13.62	37	121	+35
	People's Movement of Ukraine	2,498,262	9.70	32	1,500,648	5.85	14	46	+26
	Socialist Party – Peasant Party	2,273,788	8.83	29	1,067,267	4.16	5	34	+1
	Party of Greens of Ukraine	1,444,264	5.61	19	196,044	0.76	0	19	+19
	People's Democratic Party	1,331,460	5.17	17	985,770	3.84	11	28	+24
	Hromada	1,242,235	4.82	16	880,073	3.43	8	24	New
	Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine	1,075,118	4.18	14	231,043	0.90	2	16	New
	Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)	1,066,113	4.14	14	450,522	1.76	3	17	New
	Agrarian Party of Ukraine	978,330	3.80	0	784,287	3.06	9	9	New
	Reforms and Order Party	832,574	3.23	0	455,166	1.77	3	3	New
	Laborious Ukraine (GKU–UPS)	813,326	3.16	0	123,869	0.48	1	1	–1
	National Front (KUN–UKRP–URP)	721,966	2.80	0	642,125	2.50	5	5	–10
	Together (LPU–PP)	502,969	1.95	0	309,371	1.21	1	1	–3
	Forward Ukraine! (KDS–UKDP)	461,924	1.79	0	129,378	0.50	2	2	+2
	Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine	344,826	1.34	0	190,783	0.74	2	2	+1
	Bloc of Democratic Parties – NEP (DPU–PEV)	326,489	1.27	0	275,460	1.07	1	1	–1
	Party of National Economic Development of Ukraine	250,476	0.97	0	28,418	0.11	0	0	New
	SLON – Social Liberal Association (Viche–MBR)	241,367	0.94	0	112,968	0.44	1	1	0
	Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine	241,262	0.94	0	204,631	0.80	2	2	New
	All-Ukrainian Party of Workers	210,622	0.82	0	57,463	0.22	0	0	New
	Soyuz	186,249	0.72	0	38,467	0.15	1	1	New
	All-Ukrainian Party of Women's Initiatives	154,650	0.60	0	18,208	0.07	0	0	New
	Republican Christian Party	143,496	0.56	0	70,064	0.27	0	0	New
	Ukrainian National Assembly	105,977	0.41	0	88,136	0.34	0	0	–1
	Social Democratic Party of Ukraine	85,045	0.33	0	36,670	0.14	0	0	–2
	Motherland Defenders Party	81,808	0.32	0	26,286	0.10	0	0	New
	Party of Spiritual, Economic and Social Progress	53,147	0.21	0	28,418	0.11	0	0	New
	Party of Muslims of Ukraine	52,613	0.20	0	1,342	0.01	0	0	New
	Fewer Words (SNPU–DSU)	45,155	0.18	0	65,760	0.26	1	1	0
	European Choice of Ukraine (LDPU–USDP)	37,118	0.14	0	59,474	0.23	0	0	0
	Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine				17,656	0.07	0	0	New
	Women's Party of Ukraine				15,867	0.06	0	0	New
	Party of Slavic Unity of Ukraine				12,470	0.05	0	0	0
	Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists				1,944	0.01	0	0	0
	Party of National Salvation of Ukraine				1,544	0.01	0	0	0
	Independents				11,148,333	43.43	111	111	–57
Vacant							5	5	–
Against all		1,396,592	5.42	–	1,915,531	7.46	–	–	–
Total		25,749,574	100.00	225	25,667,167	100.00	225	450	0
Valid votes		25,749,574	96.91		25,667,167	96.60
Invalid/blank votes		821,699	3.09		904,106	3.40
Total votes		26,571,273	100.00		26,571,273	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		37,540,092	70.78		37,540,092	70.78
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, University of Essex

^[6]

Crimea (10/10)

• No party affiliation: Serhiy Ivanov, Anatoliy Rakhansky, Valeriy Horbatov, Refat Chubarov, Anatoliy Franchuk
• Communist Party of Ukraine: Yevhen Leshan, Viktor Myronenko
• Soyuz: Lev Myrymsky
• People's Democratic Party of Ukraine: Ihor Franchuk, Valeriy Khoroshkovsky

Vinnytsia Region (8/8)

• No party affiliation: Petro Poroshenko (No.12), Oleh Yukhnovsky, Oleksandr Shpak, Yevhen Smirnov, Oleksandr Stoyan
• People's Democratic Party of Ukraine: Ihor Kvyatkovsky, Anatoliy Matviyenko
• Communist Party of Ukraine: Mykola Pasyeka

Volyn Region (4/5)

• National Front (Republican): Valeriy Dibrova
• Agrarian: Kateryna Vashchuk
• No party affiliation: Mykola Martynenko
• Democratic Party of Ukraine: Oleksandr Svyryda
• People's Democratic Party of Ukraine: Serhiy Shevchuk

Dnipropetrovsk Region (16/17)

• Hromada 6 (1-Independent)
• No party affiliation 5
• Communist 3
• Interregional bloc 1
• Agrarian 1

Donetsk Region (21/23)

• No party affiliation 12
• Communist 7
• Party of Regions 2

Zhytomyr Region (5/6)

• No party affiliation 2
• People-Democratic 1
• Communist 1
• Christian-Democratic 1

Zakarpattia Region (5/5)

• Social-Democratic (u) 3
• No party affiliation 2

Zaporizhzhia Region (7/9)

• No party affiliation 3
• Communist 3 (1-Independent)
• Agrarian 1

Ivano-Frankivsk Region (6/6)

• No party affiliation 2
• National Front 2 (all CUN)
• Labor and Liberal together 1 (Independent)
• Christian people 1

Kirovohrad Region (3/5)

• No party affiliation 3

Luhansk Region (12/12)

• Communist 8
• No party affiliation 4

Lviv Region (10/12)

• People's Movement 2
• Reforms and Order 2
• National Front 2 (all Independent)
• Fewer words 1
• No party affiliation 1
• Christian-Democratic 1
• Agrarian 1

Mykolaiv Region (3/6)

• No party affiliation 2
• Reforms and Order 1

Odesa Region (10/11)

• No party affiliation 6
• Communist 2
• Agrarian 1 (Independent)
• Social and Peasant 1

Kyiv Region (7/8)

• No party affiliation 4
• Social and Peasant 1 (Socialist)
• Agrarian 1
• People's Movement 1

Poltava Region (8/8)

• Communist 3
• No party affiliation 2
• People's Movement 1
• People-Democratic 1 (Independent)
• Forward 1 (Independent)

Rivne Region (5/5)

• People's Movement 3
• No party affiliation 2

Sumy Region (6/6)

• No party affiliation 2
• Progressive Socialist 2
• Communist 1
• Justice 1

Ternopil Region (4/5)

• People's Movement 2
• No party affiliation 1
• National Front 1 (CUN)

Kharkiv Region (12/14)

• No party affiliation 6
• Communist 2
• Agrarian 1
• Social and Peasant 1 (Independent)
• Progressive Socialist 1 (Independent)
• People-Democratic 1

Kherson Region (6/6)

• No party affiliation 2
• Hromada 1
• Communist 1
• Christian-Democratic 1
• Social and Peasant 1 (Socialist)

Khmelnytskyi Region (7/7)

• No party affiliation 4
• Republican 1
• Socialist 1
• Communist 1

Cherkasy Region (7/7)

• No party affiliation 3
• Communist 2
• Social and Peasant 1 (Peasant)
• People-Democratic 1

Chernivtsi Region (4/4)

• No party affiliation 3
• People's Movement 1

Chernihiv Region (5/6)

• No party affiliation 4
• People-Democratic 1

Kyiv (11/12)

• No party affiliation 8
• Democratic Parties 1 (Independent)
• People's Movement 1
• Reforms and Order 1

Sevastopol (2/2)

• No party affiliation 1
• Communist 1

The size of the factions created in parliament after the election fluctuated.^[7] By January 2000, the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and Hromada had not had any deputies; while Peasant Party of Ukraine had deputies only in 1999.^[7] All these factions where disbanded due to the lack of members.^[8]

Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine (later to become the biggest party of Ukraine as Party of Regions^[9]) grew massively in parliament (after in March 2001 it united with four parties) from 2 deputies elected in this election to a faction of 24 people in July 2002 (one deputy left the faction later).^[7][10][11] Later to become second biggest party of Ukraine,^[9] Batkivshchyna, started its existence as a faction when in the spring of 1999 members of Hromada left their party to join other parliament factions, among them Yulia Tymoshenko who set up the parliamentary faction "Batkivshchyna" in March 1999.^[12][13][14]

People's Movement of Ukraine split into 2 different factions in the spring of 1999 (the largest membership of the breakaway faction led by Hennadiy Udovenko was 19 and ended with 14, the "other" faction ended with 23; meaning that 10 elected People's Movement of Ukraine deputies did not represent any segment of the party anymore by June 2002).^[7][8]

Other mayor "non-elected" factions/parties to emerge in parliament after the election were: Solidarity^[15] (27 to 20 members^[7]) and Labour Ukraine^[16] (38 members in June 2002^[7]); by June 2002 the parliament had 8 more factions then its original 8 in May 1998.^[7]

• Central Election Commission of Ukraine