2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election

Electoral system

In this election, parallel voting was used. Half of the deputies to Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) were elected on proportional basis, while the other half were elected by popular vote in single-mandate constituencies. In order to gain any (proportional) seats in Verkhovna Rada a party needed to receive at least 4% of the popular vote.

Opinion polls

Conduct

On 29 March 2002 the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko won a case on defamation against the Chairman of the Tax Administration of Ukraine Mykola Azarov. The Shevchenkivsky District Court of the Kyiv city prohibited the Tax Administration of Ukraine to spread lies against the opposition electoral bloc.

Late at night on 29 March 2002 vice-governor of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Mykola Shkriblyak was mortally wounded. Shkriblyak was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) and he was a parliamentary candidate in the 90th electoral district. He died later in a local hospital.

Results

The final election results differed greatly from the final opinion poll. The 2002 parliamentary elections were the first that substantially reduced fragmentation of the Verkhovna Rada and laid the groundwork for consolidation of political views in the parliament.

Yushchenko's Our Ukraine gathered most of its support from western and central regions of Ukraine, including the city of Kyiv. The Communist Party received most of its votes from eastern and southern regions, as well as from Crimea. For United Ukraine block, which included Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, got most of its votes from eastern regions of Ukraine. Donetsk Oblast was the stronghold of the block, where it received more than twice the number of votes (36.83%) compared to the next highest supporting region: Sumy Oblast with 17.05% of the region's voters. Yulia Tymoshenko's block's support came predominantly from western regions, while the Socialists were most supported in the central regions. While the Tymoshenko block received more of the national vote compared to the Socialist Party, it did not gain a plurality in any of the regions, while the Socialist Party managed to secure plurality of votes in Poltava Oblast with 22.05%.

By electoral district

The following table demonstrates all winners of the 225 electoral districts.

Several lawmakers elected into the new parliament have family ties with other lawmakers or other family members in the executive branch of Ukrainian politics.

Faction changes after the 2002 elections

After the election, several MPs left their parties to join another others. |- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Number of seats on 15 May 2002 !style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Number of seats on 19 October 2002 !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center|Number of seats on 2 January 2003 !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center|Number of seats on 16 September 2005 !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center|[[File:Green Arrow Up.svg|10px]] [[File:Red Arrow Down.svg|10px]]

By October 2002 the For United Ukraine faction had broken down in 8 new parliamentary factions.

References

References

1. [[Dieter Nohlen]] & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1976 {{ISBN. 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. [http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,45a5199f2,45a519d32,485ba88023,0,IRBC,,UKR.html Ukraine:Treatment of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU); relationship with the National Salvation Forum (FNB); treatment of FNB members], [[Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada]] via [[UNHCR]] (14 August 2003)
3. 90-5629-631-0 (page 93)
4. 3790811890/{{ISBN. 978-3790811896 (page 184)
5. For One Ukraine
6. Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)
7. Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko
8. Bloc of Nataliya Vitrenko
9. Women for Future
10. Team of Winter Generation
11. {{in lang. uk [http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2002/03/31/2987921/ "За ЄдУ" отримує свої 14%. У відповідному exit-poll (ZaEdU is receiving its 14%. In the respective exit-poll)]. [[Ukrainska Pravda]]. March 31, 2002
12. {{in lang. uk [http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2002/03/29/2987837/ Вибори-2002: остаточний прогноз (Elections-2002: the final forecast)]. [[Ukrainska Pravda]]. March 29, 2002
13. [http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2002/03/27/2987810/ Рейтинги переможців. Без табу (Ratings of victors. No taboo)]. [[Ukrainska Pravda]]. March 27, 2002
14. [http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2002/03/29/2987863/ Тимошенко виграла суд у Азарова (Tymoshenko won case against Azarov)]. [[Ukrainska Pravda]]. March 29, 2002
15. [http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2002/03/30/2987877/ Вбито кандидата в депутати від СДПУ(О) (A parliamentary candidate from SDPU (u) was killed)]. [[Ukrainska Pravda]]. March 30, 2002
16. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1898223.stm Ukraine's election frontrunners], [[BBC News]] (28 March 2002)
17. {{in lang. uk [http://www.ukrweekly.com/archive/2002/The_Ukrainian_Weekly_2002-15.pdf Winners], [[Ukrainian Weekly]]. April 14, 2002. page 3.
18. [http://www.kyivpost.com/content/politics/family-ties-that-bind-parliament-316191.html Family ties that bind parliament], [[Kyiv Post]] (15 November 2012)
19. Virtual Politics - Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World, [[Andrew Wilson (historian). Andrew Wilson]], [[Yale University Press]], 2005, {{ISBN. 0-300-09545-7
20. [https://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/handle/123456789/388 Ukraine at the Crossroads: Velvet Revolution or Belarusification] by [[Olexiy Haran]], [[National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy]], October 2002