Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 27 March 1994, with a second round between 2 and 10 April.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1976 These were the first parliamentary elections in Ukraine as an independent state. A total of 15 political parties won seats, although a majority of deputies were independents. However, 112 seats remained unfilled, and a succession of by-elections were required in July, August, November and December 1994 and more in December 1995 and April 1996. Three hundred (300) seats or two thirds (2/3) of the parliament were required to be filled for the next convocation.
In what were the first elections held after Ukraine broke away from the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of Ukraine emerged as the largest party in the Verkhovna Rada, winning 86 of the 338 seats decided in the first two rounds.Nohlen & Stöver, p1991 This election was the result of a compromise between the President and the Verkhovna Rada, which was reached on 24 September 1993 because of a political crisis caused by mass protests and strikes particularly from students and miners. On that day, the Rada adopted a decree to organize parliamentary elections ahead of schedule, and ahead of scheduled presidential elections in June.
Electoral system (50% rule) As in the previous this election took place according to the majoritarian electoral system in 450 electoral districts containing several precincts.Against All Odds: Aiding Political Parties in Georgia and Ukraine (UvA Proefschriften) by Max Bader, Vossiuspers UvA, 2010, (page 93) Each region was assigned a proportion of districts depending on its population. Hence the most mandates were received by the more populated eastern regions of Ukraine, particularly the regions of Donets basin such as Donetsk Oblast and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
In order to be elected a candidate needed to obtain more than 50% of votes and in order for the election to be valid more than 50% of registered voters needed to vote.Parliamentary chronicles, The Ukrainian Week (30 November 2018) If no candidate obtained more than 50% in the first round, the top two candidates were listed on the ballot in the second round. In the second round the 50% rule was applied as well. Reelections were called if the 50% votes in the second round was not met.
Because of those conditions several districts in the Verkhovna Rada were left not represented for a whole convocation. Particularly acute that problem was in the city of Kyiv that was assigned 23 mandates, while in the parliament only 10 representatives for Kyiv participated in the second convocation - less than a half. Kyiv became the most under represented region.
Results
Parliamentary factions Blocs were formed in the Rada on 11 May 1994:
Political BlocSeatsSupported for the PresidentCommunists of Ukraine83 Oleksandr Moroz, Leonid KuchmaSocialist Party of Ukraine25Political parties of the world by Alan J. Day and Henry W. Degenhardt, 2002, John Harper Publishing, , Page 479 Oleksandr MorozPeople's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh)27 Volodymyr Lanovyi, Leonid KravchukInterregional Bloc26 Leonid KuchmaBloc "Derzhavnist'"25 Leonid KravchukBloc "Center"38 Leonid KravchukBloc "Agrarians of Ukraine"36 Oleksandr Tkachenko, Leonid KravchukBloc "Reforms"27 Volodymyr LanovyiBloc "Unity"25 – Not affiliated23 –Total355
The political blocs formed in the Verkhovna Rada did not exactly represent a similar party. Such parties as the Peasant's Party of Ukraine (SelPU) and the Agrarians for Reform (AZR) (a breakaway group of former SelPU members) formed the Agrarians of Ukraine bloc. Although some of the deputies, especially from SelPU, joined the Socialist bloc. The Ukrainian Republican Party (URP), the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (CUN), and the Democratic Party of Ukraine (DemPU) has formed the electoral bloc Derzhavnist (Statehood).
The left electoral blocs: Communists of Ukraine, Socialist bloc, and Peasant's Party of Ukraine The right electoral blocs: People's Movement of Ukraine and Derzhavnist The center electoral blocs: Interregional bloc, Social-Market Choice, Unity, and Agrarians for Reforms The centre-right electoral blocs: Reforms and Center
In February 1997 the following factions were present in parliament:Contemporary Ukraine Dynamics of Post-Soviet Transformation by Roman Solchanyk, M. E. Sharpe, May 1998, (page 26) The leftist: Communist of Ukraine (86 seats), Socialist Party of Ukraine (25 seats) and Peasant's Party of Ukraine (38 seats) The centrist: Constitutional Center (56 seats), Unity (37 seats), Intraregional Deputies Group (28 seats), Social-Market Choice (25 seats) and Independents (25 seats) The national democratic: Reforms and (29 seats) People's Movement of Ukraine (27 seats).
Elected members by constituency