1994 Ukrainian parliamentary election


Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 27 March 1994, with a second round between 2 and 10 April. 15 political parties gained seats and the majority of deputies were independents. However, 112 seats were 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 seats or two thirds 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. 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. 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. 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 in case 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 Kiev that was assigned 23 mandates, while in the parliament only its 10 representatives participated in the second convocation - less than a half. Kiev became the most under represented region.

Results

Parliamentary factions

Blocs were formed in the Rada on 11 May 1994:
Political BlocSeatsSupported for the President
Communists of Ukraine83Oleksandr Moroz, Leonid Kuchma
Socialist Party of Ukraine25Oleksandr Moroz
People's Movement of Ukraine 27Volodymyr Lanovyi
Interregional Bloc26Leonid Kuchma
Bloc "Derzhavnist'"25Leonid Kravchuk
Bloc "Center"38Leonid Kravchuk
Bloc "Agrarians of Ukraine"36Oleksandr Tkachenko, Leonid Kravchuk
Bloc "Reforms"27Volodymyr Lanovyi
Bloc "Unity"25–
Not affiliated23–
Total355

The political blocks formed in the Verkhovna Rada did not exactly represented a similar party. Such parties as the Peasant's Party of Ukraine and the Agrarians for Reform formed the Agrarians of Ukraine block. Although some of the deputies, especially from SelPU, joined the Socialist block. The Ukrainian Republican Party, the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Democratic Party of Ukraine has formed the electoral block Derzhavnist.
In February 1997 the following factions were present in parliament:

Regional rankings

by party

;Crimea
;Vinnytsia Region
;Volyn Region
;Dnipropetrovsk Region
;Donetsk Region
;Zhytomyr Region
;Zakarpattia Region
;Zaporizhia Region
;Ivano-Frankivsk Region
;Kirovohrad Region
;Luhansk Region
;Lviv Region
;Mykolaiv Region
;Odessa Region
;Kiev Region
;Poltava Region
;Rivne Region
;Sumy Region
;Ternopil Region
;Kharkiv Region
;Kherson Region
;Khmelnytsky Region
;Cherkasy Region
;Chernivtsi Region
;Chernihiv Region
;Kiev
;Sevastopol
;Kyiv
;Sevastopol
;Crimea
;Vinnytsia Region
;Volyn Region
;Dnipropetrovsk Region
;Donetsk Region
;Zhytomyr Region
;Zakarpattia Region
;Zaporizhia Region
;Ivano-Frankivsk Region
;Kiev Region
;Kirovohrad Region
;Luhansk Region
;Lviv Region
;Mykolaiv Region
;Odessa Region
;Poltava Region
;Rivne Region
; Sumy Region
;Ternopil Regin
;Kharkiv Region
;Kherson Region
;Khmelnytskyi Region
;Cherkasy Region
;Chernivtsi Region
;Chernihiv Region
Due to the low turnout, 112 seats remained vacant and later in the summer of 1994 20 MPs were elected to the Rada. On 20 November and 4 December nine more MPs were elected.
On 30 May 1994 MP Roman Kuper died of a heart attack and Leonid Kravchuk was elected as his replacement on 25 September. On 15 July Leonid Kuchma surrendered his parliamentarian mandate after being elected President, and Vasyl Yevrukhov was elected in his place. On 21 August MP Vitaliy Yurkovsky died, and was replaced by Natalya Vitrenko.