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Ukraine - 26 October 2014 - Rada Elections

The Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) uses a parallel system where 225 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms, and 225 members are elected by majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve 5-year terms. There is a 5% threshold for the nationwide, proportional representation contest. Before 2011, Ukraine elected all 450 members through closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. As recently as August 2014, some MP’s introduced bills to revert back to the 2006-2007 election model. However, the bills were never brought to a vote.

The President of Ukraine may early terminate the powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine where during thirty days of single regular session the plenary meeting fail to commence. The powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine elected at extraordinary elections held after the early termination of powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the previous convocation by the President of Ukraine may not be terminated within one year from the date of its election.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dissolved parliament August 25, 2014 and called for early elections, one month after his ruling coalition government collapsed. Poroshenko said his actions are within the constitution. He said new parliamentary elections will be held October 26. The president said last week that any decision regarding parliament would be guided by what the Ukrainian people want. He said they are demanding what he called a "reboot of power."

On 2 September the Central Election Commission announced that voters from Crimea (including Sevastopol) would not be able to vote for the 12 Crimean constituencies. On 25 October (one day before the election) the Central Election Commission announced that there will also be no voting in 9 constituencies in Donetsk Oblast and 6 constituencies in Luhansk Oblast (the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine). Because of this 27 seats of the 450 seats in parliament would remain unfilled.

On 26 October 2014 Ukrainians voted in parliamentary elections. Regular elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are held on the last Sunday of October of the fifth year of the term of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Early elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are appointed by the President of Ukraine and are held within sixty day period from the day of publication of the decision on the early termination of the powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

By mid-October 2014 Anatoly Gritsenko's Civic Position Party was no longer expected to do well in the elections, but the Opposition Bloc, headed by Minister of Energy Yury Boiko, was gaining momentum. President Petro Poroshenko's Bloc was expected to do well, followed by Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party and the National Front Party, supported by Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov. Former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's Batkivshschyna Party was trailing. The number of seats won by opposition parties could be higher than expected, as the general population was growing more disillusioned with the current government.

Citizens sympathize more with those candidates who can be relied on to solve urgent problems. According to some, the National Front Party and the Opposition Bloc fit in this category. The opposition parties promised that the Verkhovna Rada will create jobs, cancel the pension reform, increase social standards and establish dialogue with the pro-autonomy groups in the Donbass. Although some voters associate the Opposition Bloc with Moscow, experts think that the existence of a strong opposition party is vital to the creation of a strong political system in Ukraine.

Ukraine's Central Election Commission reported Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Popular Front was in first place, with nearly 22 percent of the vote, followed closely by the electoral bloc headed by President Petro Poroshenko, with 21 percent of the vote. The partial results include only voting by party, which is to fill half the parliament seats. The rest will go to winners of races in individual electoral districts. Despite leading rival parties, Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk both had vigorously campaigned for democratic and economic reforms hoping to forge a way for Ukraine’s eventual membership in the European Union.

The Samopomich (Self-Help) Party of western Ukraine, a likely ruling coalition partner, was in third place with about 11 percent, with the Opposition Bloc made up mostly of members of ousted Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych in fourth, with nearly 10 percent. Three other parties, with mostly pro-Western platforms, also cleared the mandatory five-percent threshold needed for parliamentary representation. The Communist Party, a fixture since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, failed to pass the hurdle.

The 26 October early parliamentary elections marked an important step in consolidating democratic elections in line with international commitments, and were characterized by many positive aspects, including an impartial and efficient Central Election Commission (CEC), competitive contests that offered voters real choice, and general respect for fundamental freedoms, international observers concluded in a preliminary statement released 27 October 2014. Candidates were generally free to campaign in what was a competitive and visible campaign environment. While largely peaceful, there was a marked increase in violence in the last ten days of the campaign, including cases of intimidation, threats and the targeted destruction of campaign property.

Despite facing fighting and foreign intervention, Ukraine conducted a credible parliamentary election process on Sunday that advanced the nation’s aspirations for democracy, independence and sovereignty, according to the findings of a National Democratic Institute (NDI) assessment mission. NDI delegates, speaking at a press conference in the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, said that voting was largely peaceful and orderly, marking the second time in less than six months that the Ukrainian people have conducted elections that meet international democratic standards in spite of the Russian occupation of Crimea and Russian-backed separatist conflicts in its eastern provinces. The delegation emphasized that the remaining counting, vote tabulation and possible complaints merit close scrutiny.

The process was not without problems, NDI said. Many Ukrainians were disenfranchised due to the conflicts. Other shortcomings included sporadic violence, intimidation and attempts to disrupt voting, some instances of voter bribery and smear campaigns in the media, insufficient promotion of women and inadequate campaign finance regulations. None of them appeared to undermine electoral credibility, the Institute said.

The most likely outcome was a three-party coalition wtih the People’s Front and the country’s current president’s Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc. The third party was Samopomich, Self-Help, which also did very well.

Due to the efforts of the election administration to ensure voting in as much of the east as possible under extraordinary circumstances, including through simplified procedures allowing voters to temporarily transfer their voting address, voting took place in 12 out of 21 election districts in the Donetsk region, and in 5 out of 11 in the Luhansk region. The nearly 30 seats that will be left empty in the new parliament serve as a stark reminder that illegal armed groups prevented voters in some parts of the country from being able to vote.

National Exit Poll numbers put the pro-Western Petro Poroshenko bloc at 23 percent of votes cast on party lists, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People's Front at 21.3 percent and a like-minded party, Self-Help, at 13.2 percent. The results mostly coincided with those of two other exit polls, conducted separately.

The Opposition Bloc, made up mostly of members of the now defunct Party of Regions of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych garnered 7.6 percent, poll numbers showed. Right-wing parties, including the Radical Party and Svoboda, took about 6 percent each, while the party of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko barely won enough votes to pass the five percent threshold needed for representation in parliament.

The Communist Party, which had been a fixture in Ukraine’s legislature since independence in 1991, will for the first time not be represented. According to the poll, it garnered less than three percent of votes.

Turn-out was estimated at 51 percent.

Partial results released on October 27 showed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People's Front and President Petro Poroshenko's bloc in a virtual tie with 21.6 percent and 21.51 percent, respectively. With about 40 percent of the ballots counted from the October 26 election, Samopomich (Self-Reliance), a pro-European party based in western Ukraine, was third with 11 percent. The Opposition Bloc had 9.7 percent, followed by populist Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party, with 7.5 percent, and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party, with 5.8 percent.