2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election

2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election

← 1998 31 March 2002 2006 →
All 450 seats to the Verkhovna Rada 226 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	69.27% ( 1.51 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Viktor Yushchenko Volodymyr Lytvyn Petro Symonenko Party Our Ukraine Bloc For United Ukraine! KPU Leader since 15 February 2002 15 December 2001 19 June 1993 Leader's seat Party list Party list Party list Last election 62 seats 36 seats 121 seat, 25.44% Seats won 113 101 64 Seat change 51 65 57 Popular vote 6,108,088 3,051,056 5,178,074 Percentage 24.49% (PR) 12.23% (PR) 20.76% (PR) Swing – – 4.48%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Viktor Medvedchuk Oleksandr Moroz Yulia Tymoshenko Party SDPU(o) SPU Tymoshenko Bloc Leader since October 1998 26 October 1991 9 February 2001 Leader's seat Party list Party list Party list Last election 17 seats, 4.14% 17 seats New Seats won 24 23 22 Seat change 7 6 New Popular vote 1,331,460 1,780,642 1,882,087 Percentage 6.52% (PR) 7.14% (PR) 7.54% (PR) Swing 2.38% – New
Party-list results Constituency results
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada before election Ivan Plyushch NDP Elected Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn For United Ukraine!

Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 31 March 2002.^[1] The Our Ukraine bloc emerged as the largest faction in the Verkhovna Rada, winning 113 of the 450 seats.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted at the time that there were physical assaults and harassment of candidates and campaign workers associated with opposition political parties prior to the March election.^[2] The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc complained of campaign related violations including "an informal 'media blackout,' [and] negatively slanted coverage".^[2]

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.^[3] In order to gain any (proportional) seats in Verkhovna Rada a party needed to receive at least 4% of the popular vote.^[4]

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.^[14]

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.^[15]

The final election results differed greatly from the final opinion poll.^[16] 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 Victor 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%.

The following table demonstrates all winners of the 225 electoral districts.^[17]

Several lawmakers elected into the new parliament have family ties with other lawmakers or other family members in the executive branch of Ukrainian politics.^[18]

After the election, several MPs left their parties to join another others.^[19]

Faction changes after the Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002 (main parties and alliances)

Parties and alliances	Number of seats on 15 May 2002	Number of seats on 19 October 2002	Number of seats on 2 January 2003	Number of seats on 16 September 2005
Viktor Yushchenko Bloc Our Ukraine	119	110	102	45	74 seats
Communist Party of Ukraine	64	61	60	56	8 seats
For United Ukraine	175	Disbanded	Disbanded	Disbanded	175 seats
Electoral Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko	23	20	18	40	17 seats
Socialist Party of Ukraine	22	21	20	26	4 seats
United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine	31	38	40	20	11 seats
Source: Virtual Politics - Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World, Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-09545-7 & Ukraine on Its Meandering Path Between East and West by Andrej Lushnycky and Mykola Riabchuk, Peter Lang, 2009, ISBN 303911607X & Ukraine at the Crossroads: Velvet Revolution or Belarusification by Olexiy Haran, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, October 2002

By October 2002 the For United Ukraine faction had broken down in 8 new parliamentary factions.^[20]

• Central Election Commission of Ukraine
• Relatively in-depth analysis of the election GlobalSecurity.org