2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election

According to the election law of November 2011, elections to the Verkhovna Rada must take place at least every five years.[7][8] That law came into effect with the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. If the Rada had sat for the maximum allotted time, the next parliamentary election would have occurred on 29 October 2017.[7] Despite this, the president-elect Petro Poroshenko said that he wanted to hold early parliamentary elections following his victory in the presidential election on 25 May 2014.[1] At 26 June session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Poroshenko said that he hoped to hold parliamentary elections in October 2014, portraying this as "the most democratic way".[9][lower-alpha 2]

The parliamentary coalition that supported the Yatsenyuk Government, formed in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and of the Euromaidan movement, was dissolved on 24 July.[11] If no new coalition formed within thirty days, President Poroshenko would become entitled to dissolve the Rada and to call early parliamentary elections.[11] On the same day as the dissolution, the Sovereign European Ukraine faction submitted a bill to the Rada that called for elections to take place on 28 September 2014.[12]

In an interview with Ukrainian television channels on 14 August, Poroshenko justified early elections because the Rada refused to recognise the self-proclaimed breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics as terrorist organisations.[13] The two republics, situated in the eastern Ukrainian region of the Donbas, originated in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine respectively, and have been fighting Ukrainian government forces in the war in Donbas.[14] President Poroshenko said: "I don't know how to work with a parliament in which a huge number [of deputies], whole factions, make up 'the fifth column' controlled from abroad [referring to Russia]. And this danger is only increasing".[13] He also said that new elections "are the best and the most efficient form of lustration of not only the parliament but also the political forces".

Poroshenko announced on 25 August that he had called for elections to the Rada to take place on 26 October 2014.[2][15] In his accompanying television address, he portrayed the elections as necessary to "purify the Rada of the mainstay of [former president] Viktor Yanukovych". These deputies, Poroshenko said, "clearly do not represent the people who elected them".[16] Poroshenko also painted these Rada deputies as responsible for "the [January 2014] Dictatorship laws that took the lives of the Heavenly Hundred".[16] Poroshenko also stated that many of the (then) current MPs were "direct sponsors and accomplices or at least sympathizers of the militants/separatists".[16]

The Verkhovna Rada has 450 members, elected to a five-year term in parallel voting, with 225 members elected in single-member constituencies using FPTP system and 225 members elected by proportional representation (closed list) in a single nationwide constituency using the largest remainder method with 5% threshold.[17] Parties are not allowed to form electoral blocs (in contrast to 1998-2007 elections). Attempts to return to proportional representation with open party lists and electoral blocs were failed.[18]

The division into 225 electoral districts was the same as at the 2012 election. The voting was organized only in 198 of them.

Electoral districts

Non-voting areas

The voting was impossible to provide on the territories that was not under government control. Particularly, because of Russian occupation of Crimea there was no voting in all 10 districts in Autonomous Republic of Crimea and 2 in Sevastopol. The voting in Donbas was provided partially. The democratic watchdog OPORA estimated that 4.6 million Ukrainians were unable to vote: 1.8 million in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, 1.6 million in Donetsk Oblast and 1.2 million in Luhansk Oblast.[19]

Light green coloured parts of the Donetsk Oblast took part in the Ukrainian parliamentary election, purple coloured parts in the 2 November Donetsk People's Republic elections and yellow parts took part in neither.

In the 225 electoral districts some 3,321 candidates participated, out of which 2,018 were independent candidates.[22] 52 political parties nominated candidates.[22] 147 candidates withdrew after the 1 October candidate registration deadline.[23]

In the election campaign the parties positions on foreign relations and the war in Donbas could be roughly divided into two groups.[24] The first group consisted of pro-European parties that advocated to end the war in Donbas by use of force and consisted of Fatherland Party, Civic Position, Radical Party and People's Front (this party was ambiguous about use of force).[24] Svoboda also wanted to end the war in Donbas by use of force.[24] The party Petro Poroshenko Bloc was the only pro-European party that wanted to end the war in Donbas by a peaceful solution.[24] The second group was Strong Ukraine and Opposition Bloc who were considered pro-Russian and they advocated to end the war in Donbas by a peaceful solution.[24] The Communist Party of Ukraine (according to political scientist Tadeusz A. Olszański) "effectively supports the separatist rebellion".[24]

According to Olszański Radical Party and the Communists were the only left-wing parties.[24]

The elections were monitored by 2,321 accredited foreign observers,[33] 304 of them on behalf of 21 states and 2,017 from 20 international organisations.[33]

The Ukrainian democratic watchdog OPORA stated about the elections that they were legitimate, but that "the [election] campaign cannot be called fully free within the limits of the country" because of the fighting in the Donbas region.[34] The NGO Committee of Voters of Ukraine asked the Central Election Commission of Ukraine to declare invalid the results of constituencies 45 and 102 because there "significant irregularities were numerous".[34]

The OSCE stated about the elections that they were "in line with international commitments, and were characterized by many positive aspects, including an impartial and efficient Central Election Commission, competitive contests that offered voters real choice, and general respect for fundamental freedoms".[34] European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso called the elections "a victory of the people of Ukraine and of democracy".[34] US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry also congratulated Ukraine "on successful parliamentary elections".[34] The day after the election Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated "I think we will recognize this election because it is very important for us that Ukraine will finally have authorities that do not fight one another, do not drag Ukraine to the West or to the East, but that will deal with the real problems facing the country".[35] He also hoped that the new Ukrainian government "will be constructive, will not seek to continue escalating confrontational tendencies in society, (in ties) with Russia".[35] Lavrov's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin stated "the election is valid in spite of the rather harsh and dirty election campaign".[35] Karasin also "welcomed the success of parties supporting a peaceful resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine" and warned that "nationalistic and chauvinistic forces" in parliament could undermine peace efforts and were "extremely dangerous".[35] Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov, acting chairman of the (Russian) Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, stated that "The contacts earlier established between the State Duma and the Federation Council on the one hand and the Verkhovna Rada on the other will hopefully be re-launched in some format" although he stated he could not imagine how these contacts would be developed since he believed "The new Ukrainian parliament has become more radical-minded".[35] Dzhabarov claimed about the elections that "If such elections had been held in some other country, in Russia for instance, the West would have never recognized them as legitimate. Nevertheless, the West and Europe have recognized the Ukrainian elections as valid".[35] Observers of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation were positive about the elections and in particular welcomed that "administrative resources" were not used in the elections.[34] Observers of the International Republican Institute also expressed this opinion and stated that its observers had witnessed only minor non-systemic irregularities that could not have affected the outcome of the election.[34]

The counting of votes was significantly delayed: Central Electoral Commission announced that all ballots were counted on 10 November only.[36] The announcement of the result for 38th electoral district was delayed until mid-November due to the results being challenged in court.[37]

Voter turnout throughout Ukraine.

Voter turnout was much reduced from 2012 (16,052,228 down from 20,797,206).[38] The main reason of this decrease was the impossibility to organize voting in some regions. Because of this, the official turnout was calculated by division by the number of people who live in areas where voting was provided only (according to the CEC, it was 30,921,218).[38] So, the official voter turnout was 51.91%. In any case this percent is smaller than in 2012, when the turnout was 57.43%.

The turnout level had obvious geographical differences. The highest turnout (60-70%) was registered in western regions (except Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi Oblast), the level of turnout in central regions was average (54-58%) and in southern and eastern regions it was quite low (40-48%). The turnout in two oblasts of Donbas (or more exactly in the parts of these oblasts where the voting was provided) was 32% - the lowest in the country.[39]

Previously, the Donbas region displayed high turnout for every election. According to Tadeusz Olszański of Centre for Eastern Studies, The Party of Regions that had plenitude of the power over this region until the 2014 Ukrainian revolution artificially increased voter turnout there. The 2014 election was the end of this artificial increase. One more reason of low turnout in Donbas as well as in other south-eastern regions was a feeling among a significant part of the local population that no party represented their interests.[40]

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	People's Front	3,488,114	22.14	64	1,461,870	9.64	18	82	New
	Petro Poroshenko Bloc	3,437,521	21.82	63	2,896,640	19.11	68	131	New
	Self Reliance	1,729,271	10.98	32	161,175	1.06	1	33	New
	Opposition Bloc	1,486,203	9.43	27	223,649	1.48	2	29	New
	Radical Party of Oleh Liashko	1,173,131	7.45	22	601,022	3.96	0	22	+21
	Batkivshchyna	894,837	5.68	17	960,285	6.33	3	20	–81
	Svoboda	742,022	4.71	0	358,061	2.36	6	6	–31
	Communist Party of Ukraine	611,923	3.88	0	226,176	1.49	0	0	–32
	Strong Ukraine	491,471	3.12	0	259,676	1.71	1	1	New
	Civil Position	489,523	3.11	0	51,731	0.34	0	0	0
	Spade	418,301	2.66	0	134,418	0.89	1	1	New
	Right Sector	284,943	1.81	0	156,763	1.03	1	1	+1
	Solidarity of Women of Ukraine	105,094	0.67	0	8,649	0.06	0	0	0
	5.10	67,124	0.43	0	4,324	0.03	0	0	New
	Internet Party of Ukraine	58,197	0.37	0	8,709	0.06	0	0	0
	Party of Greens of Ukraine	39,636	0.25	0	4,612	0.03	0	0	0
	Green Planet	37,726	0.24	0	19,238	0.13	0	0	0
	Revival	31,201	0.20	0				0	0
	United Country	28,145	0.18	0				0	New
	Ukraine — United Country	19,838	0.13	0				0	New
	New Politics	19,222	0.12	0	7,481	0.05	0	0	0
	Power of the People	17,817	0.11	0	44,161	0.29	0	0	New
	Ukraine of the Future	14,168	0.09	0				0	New
	Strength and Honor	13,549	0.09	0				0	New
	Civil Movement of Ukraine	13,000	0.08	0				0	New
	Bloc of Left Forces of Ukraine	12,499	0.08	0	37,800	0.25	0	0	New
	National Democratic Party of Ukraine	11,826	0.08	0	7,243	0.05	0	0	New
	Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists	8,976	0.06	0	31,889	0.21	0	0	0
	Liberal Party of Ukraine	8,523	0.05	0	36,421	0.24	0	0	0
	Ukrainian Platform "Sobor"				38,257	0.25	0	0	0
	Democratic Alliance				31,796	0.21	0	0	New
	Ukrainian Republican Party				24,845	0.16	0	0	New
	Public Power				21,723	0.14	0	0	New
	Joint Action				19,343	0.13	0	0	New
	Justice				14,284	0.09	0	0	New
	People's Party				13,197	0.09	0	0	–2
	People's Movement of Ukraine				7,488	0.05	0	0	0
	Meritocratic Party of Ukraine				3,032	0.02	0	0	0
	Patriotic Party of Ukraine				2,268	0.01	0	0	0
	Social Christian Party				450	0.00	0	0	0
	Independents				7,282,814	48.03	97	97	+54
Vacant							27	27	–
Total		15,753,801	100.00	225	15,161,490	100.00	225	450	0
Valid votes		15,753,801	98.14
Invalid/blank votes		298,402	1.86
Total votes		16,052,203	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		30,921,218	51.91
Source: CLEA

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2014.

• Homepage Central Election Commission of Ukraine (in Ukrainian)
• Interactive map with election results Archived 9 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine by OPORA (in Ukrainian)