Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 26 March 2006.Ukraine Is the Winner as Nation Heads to the Polls, Los Angeles Times (March 26, 2006) Election campaigning officially began on 7 July 2005. Between November 26 and 31 December 2005, party lists of candidates were formed.
The election to the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada, was held according to the party-list proportional election system—that is, in a single nationwide electoral districtAgainst All Odds: Aiding Political Parties in Georgia and Ukraine (UvA Proefschriften) by Max Bader, Vossiuspers UvA, 2010, (page 93) with votes being allocated to the political parties or election blocs rather than to individual candidates. In the previous parliamentary elections half of parliamentary representatives (deputies) were elected on proportional basis, while the other half were elected in single-mandate constituencies.
Following the Orange Revolution and the 2004 presidential elections in December 2004, Ukrainian parliament adopted significant changes (amendments) to the Constitution of Ukraine by introducing concepts of political coalition, coalition government, imperative mandate as well as transferred some power from the President to the parliament, making Ukraine a parliamentary-presidential democracy. Those amendments were to enter into force on 1 January 2006. The new constitutional amendment also abolished single member-districts and replacing them with an increased multi-member proportional representation. According to the election law and the system adopted, the political parties or election blocs need to collect at least 3% of the national vote in order to gain seats in parliament.Parliamentary chronicles, The Ukrainian Week (30 November 2018)
Parties and electoral blocs registered A record number of forty five parties registered for the election, with only five securing the minimum 3% quota required to elect representatives to the Ukrainian parliament. Seats in the Verkhovna Rada are allocated among those parties securing the 3% quota according to the largest remainder method of seat allocation, using the Hare quota. Each party meeting the 3% quota is entitled to appoint one representative for every 1/450 (approximately 0.22%) of the total vote allocated to all parties exceeding the 3% threshold, with remaining seats being awarded to the parties with the largest remaining fractions of 1/450 of the total vote allocated to all parties meeting the 3% threshold.
Name of the party or electoral bloc (number of candidates):
(Parties or blocs which have obtained at least 3% of the vote are in bold)
Communist Party of Ukraine (449) Party of Regions (446) People's Movement of Ukraine for Unity (42) Party of Social Protection (20) Political Party "European Capital" (35) Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc "People's Opposition" (390) Party "Rus'-Ukrainian Union" Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine All-Ukrainian Party of People's Trust (41) Lazarenko Bloc (130) Party "Social Democratic Union" Political Party All-Ukrainian Union "Hromada" Social Democratic Party of Ukraine Bloc "Our Ukraine" (393) Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists People's Movement of Ukraine Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine Party of Christian Democratic Union Political Party People's Union Our Ukraine Ukrainian Republican Party "Assembly" Lytvyn's People's Bloc (444) People's Party Party of All-Ukrainian Union of the Left "Justice" Ukrainian Peasant Democratic Party Party of National Economic Development of Ukraine (24) Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc (409) All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" Ukrainian Social-Democratic Party Socialist Party of Ukraine (390) Electoral Bloc "Yevhen Marchuk - "Unity" (82) Party of Freedom Party "Solidarity of Women of Ukraine" Ukrainian Party "Unity" Electoral Bloc of Political Parties of Borys Olijnyk and Myhailo Syrota (99) Political Party "Informational Ukraine" Political Party "Party of Health" Labor Party of Ukraine "Oppositional bloc NE TAK!" (NOT YES!) (441) Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) Republican Party of Ukraine "Women for the Future" All-Ukrainian Political Union Political Party "All-Ukrainian Union "Center" Ukrainian People's Bloc of Kostenko and Plyusch (216) Party of Free Peasants and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine Political Party "Collected Ukraine" Ukrainian People's Party Party of Greens of Ukraine (87) Block of People's Democratic Parties (376) Democratic Party of Ukraine People's Democratic Party Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine Christian Liberal Party of Ukraine Party "Viche" (58) Social Christian Party (36) Ukrainian Conservative Party (31) Party of Pensioners of Ukraine (93) Political party "Forwards, Ukraine!" (77) "Electoral bloc "State - Labor Union" (263) All-Ukrainian Party of Laborious Political Party "State" Electoral bloc of political parties "FOR UNION" (83) Party "Socialist Ukraine" Party "Union" Political Party "Homeland" Slavic Party Party "Renassainse" (86) Political Party "Working Ukraine" (20) Ukrainian Party "Green Planet" (28) Electoral Bloc "Power to the People" (173) All-Ukrainian Party of Spirituality and Patriotism All-Ukrainian Chernobyl People's Party "For Welfare and Social Protection of the People" Party of Protection of Pensioners of Ukraine All-Ukrainian Party "New Force" (185) "Civil Bloc PORA-PRP" (244) Civil Party "PORA" Party "Reforms and Order" Liberal Party of Ukraine (43) Political Party of Ukraine "Party of PUTIN's Politics" (162) Social Ecological Party "Union. Chernobyl. Ukraine." (54) Bloc "Patriots of Ukraine" (99) Patriotic Party of Ukraine Ukrainian National Conservative Party "Yuriy Karmazin Bloc" (59) All-Ukrainian Party of Peace and Unity Party of Defenders of Homeland Party "National Democratic Union "Ukraine" Party of Patriotic Forces of Ukraine (103) Political Party "Party of Ecological Rescue "EKO+25%" (140) Political Party Third Force (208) Ukrainian People's Assembly (22) All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" (109) Peasant Party of Ukraine (65) Bloc of Partyless "Sun" (129) Ukrainian Party of Honor, Combating Corruption, and Organized Crime (44)
Opinion polls According to earlier polls, front-runners where Party of Regions on 34%, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc on 24%, as well as President Yushchenko's People's Union Our Ukraine.
Two other political forces that where virtually assured to pass a 3% barrier where the Socialist Party of Ukraine headed by Oleksander Moroz and the bloc of the current Speaker of Verkhovna Rada, Volodymyr Lytvyn (based on his former Agrarian Party of Ukraine renamed to the People's Party).
The Communist Party of Ukraine, which has progressively received fewer and fewer votes with each election (25% in 1998, 20% in 2002), was expected to continue their decline in voter support.
Whilst some parties have nominated over 400 candidates, it was always unlikely that any single Party would elect over 200 members. In order to form a Government, under Ukraine's constitution, parties will need to form a coalition with two or more voting blocks within the first month following the declaration of the polls.
Razumkov Centre Poll Each 2 weeks Razumkov Centre held a representative national survey.
Table 1 shows the results for the parties likely to pass the three percent threshold.
Table 1: Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2006, Survey Party or electoral bloc Nov. 2005 Jan. 2006 (1) Jan. 2006 (2) Party of Regions 17.5% 24.7% 27.4%Bloc "Our Ukraine" 13.5% 15.4% 16.9%Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc 12.4% 12.0% 12.7%Socialist Party of Ukraine 5.6% 4.6% 6.3%Communist Party of Ukraine 5.8% 4.6% 6.2%Lytvyn's People's Bloc 3.3% 3.0% 3.4%Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc "People's Opposition" 2.6% 2.5% 1.8%Other 5.3% 7.7% 7.4%Against all 6.7% 3.9% 4.1%Will not vote 6.4% 2.5% 3.1%Does not know/no opinion 20.9% 19.1% 10.5%Not answered - - 0.2%Total100.0%100.0%100.0% number of respondents 1993 2290 2016precision (p-value) 2.3% 2.1% 2.3%
The latest Razumkov poll shows a consolidation of voter opinion and if the results of the poll are a true indication of voter intention the voter participation rate will be above 90% of registered voters. Voting in Ukraine is not compulsory. Votes below the 3% threshold are discarded which increases the proportional share of seats allocated to the remaining party/blocs. There is still 10.5% of voters undecided.
Kyiv International Institute of Sociology Kyiv International Institute of Sociology presented the latest poll on 9 February based on a survey during 20–27 January.
Table 2 shows the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) poll results for the parties likely to pass the three percent threshold.
Table 2: Ukrainian parliamentary election, January 2006, Survey Party or electoral bloc Ukraine West Center South East Party of Regions 29.9% 5.0% 8.5% 43.5% 68.1%Bloc "Our Ukraine" 18.5% 38.4% 23.4% 9.6% 2.3%Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc 10.4% 16.6% 16.6% 5.3% 2.0%Socialist Party of Ukraine 4.0% 2.1% 8.9% 2.0% 1.5%Communist Party of Ukraine 4.5% 0.9% 4.3% 6.5% 6.0%Lytvyn's People's Bloc 2.6% 1.8% 3.8% 3.7% 0.4%Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc "People's Opposition" 1.3% 0.7% 0.3% 2.5% 1.8%Civic Bloc "PORA" 0.7% 1.9% 0.3% 0.7% 0.2%Greens Party 0.6% 0.3% 1.0% 0.6% 0.2%Ukrainian People's Bloc of Kostenko and Plyusch 0.5% 1.1% 0.7% 0.2% 0.0%Opposition Bloc "Ne Tak" 0.5% 0.6% 0.2% 0.7% 0.7%Other (less than 0.4% each) 3.0% 1.6% 4.1% 3.6% 1.9%Undecided 13.5% 20.5% 13.7% 12.6% 7.3%Against all 5.7% 4.2% 10.2% 3.3% 4.0%Does not vote 4.3% 4.3% 4.0% 5.2% 3.6%Total100.0%100.0%100.0%100.0%100.0% The map to the right shows the non administrative regional division used by KIIS: The Western region (orange) comprises the eight oblasts of the west - Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Transcarpathia, and Chernivtsi oblasts; the Central region (yellow) is made up by Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kyiv oblasts as well as the city of Kyiv; the Southern region (light blue) consists of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol; the Eastern region (dark blue) includes Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts
Exit polls National exit poll 2006Exit-poll Ukrainian sociology serviceExit-poll "FOM-Ukraine"Party of Regions - 33.28% Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc - 22.72% Bloc "Our Ukraine" - 13.53% Socialist Party of Ukraine - 5.37% Communist Party of Ukraine - 3.46% Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc - 3.35% Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc - 2.7% "Viche" - 2.2% Pora-PPR - 1.34% Plyusch-Kostenko Bloc - 1.72% "Ne Tak" - 1.2% Against all - 1.16%Party of Regions - 27.5% Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc - 21.6% Bloc "Our Ukraine" - 15.6% Socialist Party of Ukraine - 5.5% Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc - 5.1% Communist Party of Ukraine - 4.7% Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc - 3.2% "Ne Tak" - 2.8% Pora-PPR - 2.7% "Viche" - 1.9% Against all - 1.72%Party of Regions - 31.4% Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc - 22.9% Bloc "Our Ukraine" - 17% Socialist Party of Ukraine - 6.9% Communist Party of Ukraine - 3.9% Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc - 2.9% Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc - 2.5% Plusch-Kostenko Bloc - 1.7% "Viche" 1.4% Pora-PPR - 1.3% "Ne Tak" - 1.1% Against all - 1.8% Source: Korrespondent.net
Results On 10 April the Central Election Commission (CVK) announced the final results of vote counting. Out of 45 parties, only 5 passed the required 3% electoral threshold (see the table below).
Comparing the results with early polls (but not with 2005 opinion pollsUkraine:Has Yushchenko Betrayed The Orange Revolution?, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (30 September 2005)), it was unexpected that President Viktor Yushchenko's party "Our Ukraine" received less than 14% of the national vote, coming third after the Party of Regions, and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.
As per preliminary results, the Ukrainian Communist Party was soundly trounced, getting less than 4% of the vote and 21 deputies as a result, as opposed to their 20% in the 2002 elections.