Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
Encyclopedia
The Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 was held on October 31, November 21 and December 26, 2004. The election was the fourth presidential
election to take place in Ukraine
following independence from the Soviet Union
. The last stages of the election was contested between the opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko
and the incumbent Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovych
from the Party of Regions
. The election was held in a highly charged political atmosphere, with allegations of media bias, voter intimidation and a poisoning of candidate Yushchenko that was later confirmed to be the result of dioxin poisoning.
According to Ukraine's electoral law, a two-round system
is used to elect the President in which a candidate must win a majority (50% or more) of all ballots cast. The first round of voting was held on October 31, 2004. As no candidate had 50% or more of the votes cast a run-off ballot between the two-highest polling candidates, Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych, was held on November 21. According to official Central Election Commission
results announced on November 23, the run-off election was won by Viktor Yanukovych. The election results were challenged by Viktor Yushchenko and his supporters with many international observers claiming that the election was rigged.
The subsequent events led to a political crisis in Ukraine, with widespread peaceful protesters, dubbed the "Orange Revolution
," calling for a re-run second round election. The Ukrainian Supreme Court
annulled the official run-off results and ordered a repeat of second round ballot.
The final re-run ballot was held on December 26. Viktor Yushchenko was declared the winner with 52 percent of the vote to Yanukovych's 44 percent.
International observers reported that the re-run ballot was considered overall fairer than the previous ballots.
The two main contenders in the election were the incumbent Prime Minister and government-supported candidate Viktor Yanukovych
and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko
. Viktor Yanukovych, who was the Prime Minister since 2002, was supported by the outgoing President Leonid Kuchma
, as well as by the Russia
n government and then president Vladimir Putin
.
Viktor Yushchenko was portrayed as being more pro-Western and had received support of the European Union
states and the United States
.
The preliminary ballot of the 2004 presidential election was held on October 31, 2004. The official results recorded Viktor Yushchenko with 39.87 percent and Victor Yanukovych 39.32 percent of the votes cast. As no candidate had secured 50% or more votes required for outright victory, a run-off election was scheduled for November 21. Although a 75 percent turnout was recorded in the initial vote, observers reported many irregularities, particularly in the regions where Yushchenko's support was seen to be strongest. It was unclear how much of an impact this had on the result.
A total of 28,035,184 voters participated in the first round of voting. Results of the preliminary vote were as follows:
The geographic distribution of the votes showed a clear east-west division of Ukraine, which is rooted deeply in the country's history
. The western and central parts roughly correspond with the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
in the 17th century. They are considered more pro-Western, with the population mostly Ukrainian
-speaking and Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Uniate) in the west or Ukrainian Orthodox in the center, and have voted predominantly for Yushchenko. The heavy-industrialized eastern part, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimean
, where the links with Russia
and the Russian Orthodox Church
are much stronger, and which contains many ethnic Russians, is a Yanukovych stronghold.
Between the two rounds of the election, dramatic increases in turnout were recorded in Yanukovych-supporting regions, while Yushchenko-supporting regions recorded the same turnout or lower than recorded in the first round. This effect was most marked in eastern Ukraine and especially in Yanukovych's stronghold of Donetsk Oblast
, where a turnout of 98.5% was reportedly claimed—more than 40% up from the first round. In some districts, turnout was recorded to be more than 100% than the previous ballot, with one district reported by observers to have recorded a 127% turnout. According to election observers and post-election investigations, pro-Yanukovych activists traveled around the country and voted many times as absentees. Some groups dependent on government assistance, such as students, hospital patients and prisoners, were told to vote for the government candidate.
Many other alleged irregularities were reported, including ballot stuffing
, intimidation at voting booths and huge numbers of new voters appearing on the electoral rolls—in Donetsk
alone, half a million more voters were registered for the runoff election. Yanukovych won all but one of the regions where significant increases in turnout were noted. It was later determined by the Ukrainian Supreme Court
that this was in fact due to widespread falsification of the results.
, the European Union
and Russia
, with the US backing Yushchenko (Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger
, former National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski
and Senator
John McCain
all visited Kiev, in official or private capacities), and Russian president Vladimir Putin
publicly backing Yanukovych. In the media the two candidates were contrasted, with Yushchenko representing both the pro-Western Kiev
residents as well as the rural Ukrainians, whereas Yanukovych represents the Eastern, pro-Russian industrial laborers.
More specifically it was considered that a Yushchenko victory would represent a halt of Ukraine's integration with the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States
, and possibly a cancellation of the Common Economic Space
between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
and Kazakhstan
that had already been agreed to by the Ukrainian parliament; he would instead be likely to increase attempts at further integration with Europe and a possible membership in the EU and NATO. Viktor Yanukovych had promised to make Russian an official language for Ukraine, as is also the case in other CIS member states Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
.
president Alexander Lukashenko
, on his victory before election results were officially declared. CIS election observers praised the second round of the elections as "legitimate and of a nature that reflected democratic standards", a view in direct contradiction to other monitoring organizations such as the ENEMO, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine and the IEOM.
Prominent hardliners in Russia cast the election as opposition to renewed Western imperialism
. Russian Communist Party
leader Gennady Zyuganov
, for example, blames the West for interfering in the situation in Ukraine in the run-up to the October 31 presidential election:
On November 28, Yuriy Luzhkov
, the Mayor of Moscow, gave a speech denouncing the Ukrainian opposition, calling its members a "sabbath of witches" pretending to "represent the whole of the nation." Russian newspapers have printed increasingly shrill warnings, with the Communist party paper Pravda
claiming: "NATO troops in Hungary and Poland are preparing to move, and Romanian and Slovakian military units have been put on alert. Ukrainian towns are in their sights."
Several other CIS countries lined up with Russia in supporting Yanukovych. Belarus
ian President Alexander Lukashenko
phoned Yanukovych to offer his own congratulations before the results had been officially declared. Kazakhstan
's President Nursultan Nazarbayev
wrote to Yanukovych that "Your victory shows that the Ukrainian people have made a choice in favour of the unity of the nation, of democratic development and economic progress." The presidents of Kyrgyzstan
(Askar Akayev
) and of Uzbekistan
(Islam Karimov) likewise sent their congratulations. However, later Karimov criticized Russia's involvement in the Ukrainian election, saying that "Russia’s excessive demonstration of its willingness to see a certain outcome in the vote has done more harm than good."
In contrast, the Georgian
president Mikhail Saakashvili indicated his support for the supporters of Yushchenko, saying that "What is happening in Ukraine today clearly attests to the importance of Georgia's example for the rest of the world." This was a reference to the Rose Revolution
of late 2003. Indeed, Georgians have been highly visible in the demonstrations in Kiev and the flag of Georgia
has been among those on display in the city's Independence Square, while Yushchenko himself held up a rose in a seeming reference to the Rose Revolution. Moldova's Foreign Ministry issued a statement late November 2004 that stated "basic democratic principles were distorted" and expressed regret that the poll "lacked the objective criteria necessary for their recognition by both the citizens of Ukraine and the international community".
Armenia
and Azerbaijan
kept more cautious positions, supporting neither side but stressing the need for Ukrainian unity.
On December 2, one day before the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a repeat runoff ballot, President Kuchma visited Moscow to discuss the crisis with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Putin supported Kuchma's position of desiring wholly new elections, rather than just a repeat of the second round.
The European Union
made it clear that they would not recognize the results of the election. All 25 member countries of the EU summoned their ambassadors from Ukraine in order to register a sharp protest against what is seen as election fraud.
The European Union
disputed the election process in Ukraine, with European Commission
President
José Manuel Barroso warning of consequences if there is no review of the election. During a meeting between Putin and EU officials in the Hague
, the Russian president opposed the EU reaction by saying that he was "deeply convinced that we have no moral right to push a big European state to any kind of massive disorder."
Among EU member states, Ukraine's western neighbors were most concerned. In Poland
, Ukraine's largest western neighbor, politicians, the media and ordinary citizens enthusiastically supported Yushchenko and opposed the election fraud. Polish deputies to the European Parliament
have called for giving Ukraine the prospect of future EU membership provided the country obeyed democratic standards. Western EU members are however more reluctant with the idea of Ukrainian membership in the EU, which results in Polish media accusing them of being more interested in the integration process with Turkey
and maintaining good relations with Russia.
On November 25, former Ukrainian foreign minister and a close collaborator of Yushchenko, Borys Tarasyuk
delivered a speech before the Polish Sejm
, urging Poland not to recognize the election result and help solve the political crisis. On the same day former Polish President Lech Wałęsa
went to Kiev to publicly express his support for Viktor Yushchenko. He was later followed by a number of Polish MPs from different parties.
On November 26 the President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski
arrived in Kiev, followed on the same day by the EU Minister for Foreign Affairs Javier Solana
and the Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus
.
, Colin Powell
, quite unequivocally stated that the result announced could not be accepted as legitimate by the United States
. President
George W. Bush
and various members of Congress
made statements disclosing their concern over the legitimacy of the polling. Prominent former Cold War
hawk Zbigniew Brzezinski
cast the election as an opposition to renewed Russian imperialism:
U.S. Senators John McCain
and Hillary Clinton jointly wrote a letter nominating Victor Yushchenko along with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili for the Nobel Peace Prize
. The nomination was unsuccessful.
Viktor Yanukovych conceded defeat on December 31, 2004 and subsequently resigned as Ukraine's Prime Minister the same day. Despite Yushchenko's victory in the second round of voting, the regional voting patterns remained largely unchanged between each round, with many southern and eastern provinces supporting Yanukovych, with the west and central regions favoring Yushchenko.
Ukraine's supreme court rejected an appeal lodged by Viktor Yanukovych against the electoral commission's conduct of the election on January 6.
On January 10 the Ukrainian Electoral Commission officially declared Viktor Yushchenko the winner and on January 11 published the final election results, clearing the way for Yushchenko to be inaugurated as Ukraine's fifth President. The official ceremonies took place on Sunday, January 23 at about noon, when Yushchenko undertook the constitutional oath was sworn in as President.
In November 2009 Yanukovych stated that although is victory in the elections was "taken away" he gave up this victory in order to avoid bloodshed. "I didn't want mothers to lose their children and wives their husbands. I didn't want dead bodies from Kyiv to flow down the Dnipro. I didn't want to assume power through bloodshed."
no criminal election fraud charges have been filed against any top officials. The prosecutor general did arrest several public figures on charges of election fraud in the first half of 2005, but no high-profile case was bought to court. On 23 September 2005 Yushchenko announced a pact with the Party of Regions
in which he promised to look into an amnesty for those convicted of vote rigging during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections. One of the top election-fraud suspects, former CEC head Serhiy Kivalov, is a Party of Regions
deputy who heads the Ukrainian Parliament’s Judiciary Committee.
During the 2010 presidential election
-campaign Viktor Yanukovych
pledged to prevent electoral fraud during those elections: "We will properly respond to all provocations and attempts to fake election results”.
President of Ukraine
Prior to the formation of the modern Ukrainian presidency, the previous Ukrainian head of state office was officially established in exile by Andriy Livytskyi. At first the de facto leader of nation was the president of the Central Rada at early years of the Ukrainian People's Republic, while the...
election to take place in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
following independence from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The last stages of the election was contested between the opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
and the incumbent Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Ukraine
The Prime Minister of Ukraine is Ukraine's head of government presiding over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government....
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a Ukrainian politician who has been the President of Ukraine since February 2010.Yanukovych served as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002...
from the Party of Regions
Party of Regions
The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others...
. The election was held in a highly charged political atmosphere, with allegations of media bias, voter intimidation and a poisoning of candidate Yushchenko that was later confirmed to be the result of dioxin poisoning.
According to Ukraine's electoral law, a two-round system
Two-round system
The two-round system is a voting system used to elect a single winner where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate...
is used to elect the President in which a candidate must win a majority (50% or more) of all ballots cast. The first round of voting was held on October 31, 2004. As no candidate had 50% or more of the votes cast a run-off ballot between the two-highest polling candidates, Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych, was held on November 21. According to official Central Election Commission
Central Election Commission of Ukraine
The Central Election Commission of Ukraine ; sometimes referred to as the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine) is a permanent and independent collegiate body of the Ukrainian government.- Mission and Authority :...
results announced on November 23, the run-off election was won by Viktor Yanukovych. The election results were challenged by Viktor Yushchenko and his supporters with many international observers claiming that the election was rigged.
The subsequent events led to a political crisis in Ukraine, with widespread peaceful protesters, dubbed the "Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
," calling for a re-run second round election. The Ukrainian Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Ukraine
The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the highest judicial body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction in Ukraine.The Court derives its authority from the Constitution of Ukraine, but much of its structure is outlined in legislation...
annulled the official run-off results and ordered a repeat of second round ballot.
The final re-run ballot was held on December 26. Viktor Yushchenko was declared the winner with 52 percent of the vote to Yanukovych's 44 percent.
International observers reported that the re-run ballot was considered overall fairer than the previous ballots.
- For a timeline of events that followed the runoff, see Post-election developments in Ukraine, 2004Post-election developments in Ukraine, 2004Below is the timeline of events that followed the runoff presidential election held in Ukraine on 21 November 2004 that sparked off the "Orange Revolution".-21 November:...
.
Candidates
All together 26 candidates had been nominated and participated in presidential elections.The two main contenders in the election were the incumbent Prime Minister and government-supported candidate Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a Ukrainian politician who has been the President of Ukraine since February 2010.Yanukovych served as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002...
and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
. Viktor Yanukovych, who was the Prime Minister since 2002, was supported by the outgoing President Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Danylovych Kuchma was the second President of independent Ukraine from 19 July 1994, to 23 January 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival, incumbent Leonid Kravchuk...
, as well as by the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n government and then president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
.
Viktor Yushchenko was portrayed as being more pro-Western and had received support of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
states and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Preliminary vote
A total of 28,035,184 voters participated in the first round of voting. Results of the preliminary vote were as follows:
| candidate | nominated by | % | votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution... |
self-nominated | 39.90 | 11,118,675 |
| Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a Ukrainian politician who has been the President of Ukraine since February 2010.Yanukovych served as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002... |
Party of Regions Party of Regions The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others... |
39.26 | 11,008,731 |
| Oleksandr Moroz Oleksandr Moroz Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Moroz is a Ukrainian statesman and politician. He was the Speaker of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine twice: July 2006 to September 2007, and previously in 1994 through 1998. Moroz is one of the founders and leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, which was an influential... |
Socialist Party of Ukraine Socialist Party of Ukraine The Socialist Party of Ukraine is a Socialist political party in Ukraine and part of the Verkhovna Rada from 1994 to 2007.It is one of the oldest parties and was created by the former members of the Communist Party of Ukraine in late 1991 when the Communist Party was banned... |
5.82 | 1,632,098 |
| Petro Symonenko Petro Symonenko Petro Mykolayovych Symonenko is a Ukrainian politician and the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Symonenko was the Communist Party's candidate in both the 1999 and 2004 presidential elections. During the Ukrainian presidential election, 2010 he was the candidate of the Election... |
Communist Party of Ukraine Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine is a political party in Ukraine, currently led by Petro Symonenko.The party fights the Ukrainian national self-determination by identifying any Ukrainian national parties as the National-Fascist ones The Communist Party of Ukraine is a political party in Ukraine,... |
4.97 | 1,396,135 |
| Nataliya Vitrenko Nataliya Vitrenko Nataliya Mikhailivna Vitrenko is a Ukrainian politician and scientist. She has a Ph.D in Statistics and Dr. of Social Sciences. She is a mother of three children.-Presidential candidacy:... |
Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine -Ideology:The party favoures Ukraine's full-scale entry in the Eurasian Economic Community ; the protection of the non-aligned status of Ukraine; abolition of NATO exercises in Ukraine; giving the Russian language status as official language along with Ukrainian; annulment of former President... |
1.53 | 429,794 |
| Anatoliy Kinakh Anatoliy Kinakh Anatoliy Kyrylovych Kinakh is a Ukrainian politician and honorary professor at the Mykolaiv Government Humanitarian University. Kinakh is a People's Deputy of Ukraine in the 6th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament... |
Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine The Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine is a political party in Ukraine registered in April 2000. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatoliy Kinakh is one of its most noticeable members.-History:... |
0.93 | 262,530 |
| Oleksandr Yakovenko | Communist Party of Workers and Peasants Communist Party of Workers and Peasants The Communist Party of Workers and Peasants is a political party in Ukraine, formed in 2001 following a split from the Communist Party of Ukraine . The first chairman of the party was Oleksander Mykolayovych Yakovenko... |
0.78 | 219,191 |
| Oleksandr Omelchenko Oleksandr Omelchenko Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Omelchenko became the mayor of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in 1999. He lost his re-election bid in March 2006. Omelchenko is now member of the Verkhovna Rada elected on behalf of Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc but expelled from that fraction in September 2011.... |
Unity Party | 0.48 | 136,830 |
| Leonid Chernovetsky | self-nominated | 0.45 | 129,066 |
| Dmytro Korchynskyy Dmytro Korchynskyy Dmytro Oleksandrovych Korchynsky is a famous Ukrainian public figure, poet and publicist. Leader of BRATSTVO , religious, public and political organization of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, which is working on religious freedom protection, defending of Christians from authorities' violation and... |
self-nominated | 0.17 | 49,961 |
| Andriy Chornovil Andriy Chornovil Andriy Vyacheslavovych Chornovil was a self-nominated candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. He is an elder son of the famous Ukrainian dissident and a leader of People's Movement of Ukraine, Vyacheslav Chornovil. He is a deputy of Lviv regional board. Since June 2004 he has been... |
self-nominated | 0.12 | 36,278 |
| Mykola Hrabar Mykola Hrabar Mykola Fedorovych Grabar was a self-nominated candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. Previously a national deputy of Ukraine. Since 1998 he has been a lawyer of the Kiev Bar. He was a member of the Kiev City Council three times... |
self-nominated | 0.07 | 19,657 |
| Mykhaylo Brodskyy Mykhaylo Brodskyy Mykhailo Brodsky is a Ukrainian politician, leader of the Party of Free Democrats and businessman.-Biography:... |
self-nominated | 0.05 | 16,498 |
| Yuriy Zbitnyev Yuriy Zbitnyev Yuriy Ivanovych Zbitnyev was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the "New Power" Party.- Background :Zbitnyev was a founding member of the "Young Ukraine" party in 1999 and is a member of the coordinating board of public non-governmental organization "Union of tax... |
New Power Party | 0.05 | 16,321 |
| Serhiy Komisarenko Serhiy Komisarenko Serhiy Vasylʹovych Komisarenko , born July 9, 1943 in Ufa, Bashkortostan, USSR is a Ukrainian scientist, politician, and diplomat. He was a self-nominated candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, and is chairman of the of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.- Scientific... |
self-nominated | 0.04 | 13,754 |
| Vasyl Volha Vasyl Volha Vasil Oleksandrovych Volga is a Ukrainian politician and leader of the Ukrainian political party Union of Leftists.-Biography:Volga was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the non-governmental organization "Public Control", of which he has been chair since 2000.... |
non-governmental organization "Public Control" | 0.04 | 12,956 |
| Bohdan Boyko Bohdan Boyko Bohdan Fedorovych Boyko was a candidate in 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. He was nominated by the Movement of Ukrainian Patriots. In 2000 he formed a third Rukh within the Popular Movement of Ukraine aimed at reconciling the differences between the two opposing factions. Before 2002 he was... |
Movement of Ukrainian Patriots | 0.04 | 12,793 |
| Oleksandr Rzhavskyy Oleksandr Rzhavskyy Oleksander Mykolayovych Rzhavsky was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the "United Family" Party, of which he is the head. Presidential candidate in 1999, when he won 0.37% of the votes, and finished in 9th place. He was vice-chair of the board of... |
United Family Party | 0.03 | 10,714 |
| Mykola Rohozhynskyy Mykola Rohozhynskyy Mykola Volodymyrovych Rogozhynsky was a self-nominated candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. He chaired the Center for Juvenile Creativity, "Zvezdopad" also spelled "Zorepad" , where more than 100 children aged from 5 to 18 study for free. Rogozhynsky was also a poet, his... |
self-nominated | 0.03 | 10,289 |
| Vladyslav Kryvobokov Vladyslav Kryvobokov Vladyslav Anatoliyovich Kryvobokov was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the People's Party of Depositors and Social Protection, which he has chaired since its foundation in 2000. In 1997, he created and chaired a public organization "For social protection of... |
People's Party of Depositors and Social Protection | 0.03 | 9,340 |
| Oleksandr Bazylyuk | Slavic Party of Ukraine | 0.03 | 8,963 |
| Ihor Dushyn Ihor Dushyn Igor Leonidovych Dushin was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the Liberal Democratic Party. From 1994 to 1998 he was chair of the secretariat of advisers of the President of Ukraine in the area of regional politics. From 1998 to 1999 he was a scientific... |
Liberal Democratic Party of Ukraine Liberal Democratic Party of Ukraine The Liberal Democratic Party of Ukraine is a political party in Ukraine registered in July 1992.At the parliamentary elections 1998 the party was part of the European choice of Ukraine alliance, at the parliamentary elections 2002 the party was part of the Team of Winter Generation alliance. Both... |
0.03 | 8,623 |
| Roman Kozak Roman Kozak Roman Mykolayovych Kozak was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in Ukraine, which he has chaired since 2001. Born on June 16, 1957, he attended Kremenetskogo Forestry College from 1972 to 1976, then served two years in... |
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia... in Ukraine |
0.02 | 8,410 |
| Volodymyr Nechyporuk Volodymyr Nechyporuk Volodimir Nechiporuk was a self-nominated candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. He was a national deputy of Ukraine from 1998 till 2002 and from from 2002 till 2006. In that last period he has been the chair of subcommittee that controls activities of law-enforcement bodies of a... |
self-nominated | 0.02 | 6,171 |
| Hryhoriy Chernysh Hryhoriy Chernysh Grigoriy Semyonovich Chernish was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the Party of Rehabilitation of Infirm People, which he has chaired since 1994. In 1992, he founded an international charity named the "Worldwide aid organization for infirm people" and the... |
Party of Rehabilitation of Infirm People | withdrew | |
| Vitaliy Kononov Vitaliy Kononov Vitaly Mykolayovych Kononov was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, nominated by the Green Party of Ukraine, which he then chaired. He was a national deputy of Ukraine, has worked on youth politics issues, physical training issues, and sports issues. Since 1999, he has been a... |
Party of Greens of Ukraine Party of Greens of Ukraine The Party of Greens of Ukraine is a Ukrainian political green party founded in 1990 and registered in May 1991.The party is a successor of the Green World Association and under that name participated in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections of 1990 as part of the Democratic Bloc... |
withdrew | |
| Against All | 1.98 | 556,962 | |
| Informal | 2.97 | 834,426 | |
| Total | 100.00 | 28,035,184 | |
| Participation rate from 37,613,022 | 74.54 | ||
Run-off
Following the November 21 run-off ballot, Ukraine's electoral commission declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych with 49.42% of the vote the winner with Viktor Yushchenko receiving 46.69% of the ballots cast. Observers for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the run-off vote "did not meet international standards" and U.S. senior election observer, Senator Richard Lugar, called it a "concerted and forceful program of election day fraud".The geographic distribution of the votes showed a clear east-west division of Ukraine, which is rooted deeply in the country's history
History of Ukraine
The territory of Ukraine was a key center of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers. However, the history of Ukraine dates back many thousands of years. The territory has been settled continuously since at least 5000 BC, and is also a candidate site...
. The western and central parts roughly correspond with the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
in the 17th century. They are considered more pro-Western, with the population mostly Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
-speaking and Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Uniate) in the west or Ukrainian Orthodox in the center, and have voted predominantly for Yushchenko. The heavy-industrialized eastern part, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimean
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, where the links with Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
are much stronger, and which contains many ethnic Russians, is a Yanukovych stronghold.
Between the two rounds of the election, dramatic increases in turnout were recorded in Yanukovych-supporting regions, while Yushchenko-supporting regions recorded the same turnout or lower than recorded in the first round. This effect was most marked in eastern Ukraine and especially in Yanukovych's stronghold of Donetsk Oblast
Donetsk Oblast
Donetsk Oblast is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Donetsk. Historically, the province is an important part of the Donbas region...
, where a turnout of 98.5% was reportedly claimed—more than 40% up from the first round. In some districts, turnout was recorded to be more than 100% than the previous ballot, with one district reported by observers to have recorded a 127% turnout. According to election observers and post-election investigations, pro-Yanukovych activists traveled around the country and voted many times as absentees. Some groups dependent on government assistance, such as students, hospital patients and prisoners, were told to vote for the government candidate.
Many other alleged irregularities were reported, including ballot stuffing
Ballot stuffing
Ballot stuffing is the illegal act of one person submitting multiple ballots during a vote in which only one ballot per person is permitted. The name originates from the earliest days of this practice in which people literally did stuff more than one ballot in a ballot box at the same time...
, intimidation at voting booths and huge numbers of new voters appearing on the electoral rolls—in Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
alone, half a million more voters were registered for the runoff election. Yanukovych won all but one of the regions where significant increases in turnout were noted. It was later determined by the Ukrainian Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Ukraine
The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the highest judicial body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction in Ukraine.The Court derives its authority from the Constitution of Ukraine, but much of its structure is outlined in legislation...
that this was in fact due to widespread falsification of the results.
International influence and reaction
Many commentators saw the elections as being influenced by outside powers, notably the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, with the US backing Yushchenko (Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, former National Security Advisor
National Security Advisor (United States)
The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981....
and Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
all visited Kiev, in official or private capacities), and Russian president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
publicly backing Yanukovych. In the media the two candidates were contrasted, with Yushchenko representing both the pro-Western Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
residents as well as the rural Ukrainians, whereas Yanukovych represents the Eastern, pro-Russian industrial laborers.
More specifically it was considered that a Yushchenko victory would represent a halt of Ukraine's integration with the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
, and possibly a cancellation of the Common Economic Space
Common Economic Space
Common Economic Space may refer to:* Common Economic Space or Single Economic Space , a project of economical integration of four post-Soviet states: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, who are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States * Common Economic Space or Common European...
between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
that had already been agreed to by the Ukrainian parliament; he would instead be likely to increase attempts at further integration with Europe and a possible membership in the EU and NATO. Viktor Yanukovych had promised to make Russian an official language for Ukraine, as is also the case in other CIS member states Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
.
Russia and the CIS
Russia's President, Vladimir Putin congratulated Vikotor Yanukovych, which was followed shortly afterward by BelorussianBelarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
president Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has been serving as the President of Belarus since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm. Under Lukashenko's rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line...
, on his victory before election results were officially declared. CIS election observers praised the second round of the elections as "legitimate and of a nature that reflected democratic standards", a view in direct contradiction to other monitoring organizations such as the ENEMO, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine and the IEOM.
Prominent hardliners in Russia cast the election as opposition to renewed Western imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
. Russian Communist Party
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
leader Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov is a Russian politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union , deputy of the State Duma , and a member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...
, for example, blames the West for interfering in the situation in Ukraine in the run-up to the October 31 presidential election:
On November 28, Yuriy Luzhkov
Yuriy Luzhkov
Yury Mikhaylovich Luzhkov is a Russian politician who was the Mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010. He was also vice-chairman and one of the founders of the ruling United Russia party....
, the Mayor of Moscow, gave a speech denouncing the Ukrainian opposition, calling its members a "sabbath of witches" pretending to "represent the whole of the nation." Russian newspapers have printed increasingly shrill warnings, with the Communist party paper Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
claiming: "NATO troops in Hungary and Poland are preparing to move, and Romanian and Slovakian military units have been put on alert. Ukrainian towns are in their sights."
Several other CIS countries lined up with Russia in supporting Yanukovych. Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
ian President Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has been serving as the President of Belarus since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm. Under Lukashenko's rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line...
phoned Yanukovych to offer his own congratulations before the results had been officially declared. Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
's President Nursultan Nazarbayev
Nursultan Nazarbayev
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev has served as the President of Kazakhstan since the nation received its independence in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union...
wrote to Yanukovych that "Your victory shows that the Ukrainian people have made a choice in favour of the unity of the nation, of democratic development and economic progress." The presidents of Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
(Askar Akayev
Askar Akayev
Askar Akayevich Akayev served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 until his overthrow in the March 2005 Tulip Revolution....
) and of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
(Islam Karimov) likewise sent their congratulations. However, later Karimov criticized Russia's involvement in the Ukrainian election, saying that "Russia’s excessive demonstration of its willingness to see a certain outcome in the vote has done more harm than good."
In contrast, the Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
president Mikhail Saakashvili indicated his support for the supporters of Yushchenko, saying that "What is happening in Ukraine today clearly attests to the importance of Georgia's example for the rest of the world." This was a reference to the Rose Revolution
Rose Revolution
The "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...
of late 2003. Indeed, Georgians have been highly visible in the demonstrations in Kiev and the flag of Georgia
Flag of Georgia (country)
The official flag of Georgia is the "five-cross flag", restored to official use on January 14, 2004, after a break of some 500 years...
has been among those on display in the city's Independence Square, while Yushchenko himself held up a rose in a seeming reference to the Rose Revolution. Moldova's Foreign Ministry issued a statement late November 2004 that stated "basic democratic principles were distorted" and expressed regret that the poll "lacked the objective criteria necessary for their recognition by both the citizens of Ukraine and the international community".
Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
and Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
kept more cautious positions, supporting neither side but stressing the need for Ukrainian unity.
On December 2, one day before the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a repeat runoff ballot, President Kuchma visited Moscow to discuss the crisis with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Putin supported Kuchma's position of desiring wholly new elections, rather than just a repeat of the second round.
European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
made it clear that they would not recognize the results of the election. All 25 member countries of the EU summoned their ambassadors from Ukraine in order to register a sharp protest against what is seen as election fraud.
The European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
disputed the election process in Ukraine, with European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
President
President of the European Commission
The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission ― the executive branch of the :European Union ― the most powerful officeholder in the EU. The President is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or dismiss them if needed...
José Manuel Barroso warning of consequences if there is no review of the election. During a meeting between Putin and EU officials in the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, the Russian president opposed the EU reaction by saying that he was "deeply convinced that we have no moral right to push a big European state to any kind of massive disorder."
Among EU member states, Ukraine's western neighbors were most concerned. In Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Ukraine's largest western neighbor, politicians, the media and ordinary citizens enthusiastically supported Yushchenko and opposed the election fraud. Polish deputies to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
have called for giving Ukraine the prospect of future EU membership provided the country obeyed democratic standards. Western EU members are however more reluctant with the idea of Ukrainian membership in the EU, which results in Polish media accusing them of being more interested in the integration process with Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and maintaining good relations with Russia.
On November 25, former Ukrainian foreign minister and a close collaborator of Yushchenko, Borys Tarasyuk
Borys Tarasyuk
Borys Ivanovych Tarasyuk is a Ukrainian politician. He has twice served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. He is from Zhytomyr Oblast. Tarasyuk studied international relations and international law at National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, and graduated in 1975...
delivered a speech before the Polish Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
, urging Poland not to recognize the election result and help solve the political crisis. On the same day former Polish President Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
went to Kiev to publicly express his support for Viktor Yushchenko. He was later followed by a number of Polish MPs from different parties.
On November 26 the President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...
arrived in Kiev, followed on the same day by the EU Minister for Foreign Affairs Javier Solana
Javier Solana
Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González and Secretary General of NATO , he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary...
and the Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus was President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.In Lithuania, the President's tenure lasts for five years; Adamkus' first term in office began on February 26, 1998 and ended on February 28, 2003, following his defeat by Rolandas Paksas in the next...
.
United States
The United States government also decided not to recognize the election, and expressed dissatisfaction with the results; the outgoing US Secretary of StateUnited States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
, Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, quite unequivocally stated that the result announced could not be accepted as legitimate by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and various members of Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
made statements disclosing their concern over the legitimacy of the polling. Prominent former Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
hawk Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981....
cast the election as an opposition to renewed Russian imperialism:
U.S. Senators John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and Hillary Clinton jointly wrote a letter nominating Victor Yushchenko along with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
. The nomination was unsuccessful.
Re-run
The final results of the rerun ballot recorded Viktor Yushchenko receiving 52.00% of the votes, with Viktor Yanukovych on 44.19% which represented a change in the vote by +5.39% to Yushchenko and -5.27% from Yanukovych.Viktor Yanukovych conceded defeat on December 31, 2004 and subsequently resigned as Ukraine's Prime Minister the same day. Despite Yushchenko's victory in the second round of voting, the regional voting patterns remained largely unchanged between each round, with many southern and eastern provinces supporting Yanukovych, with the west and central regions favoring Yushchenko.
Ukraine's supreme court rejected an appeal lodged by Viktor Yanukovych against the electoral commission's conduct of the election on January 6.
On January 10 the Ukrainian Electoral Commission officially declared Viktor Yushchenko the winner and on January 11 published the final election results, clearing the way for Yushchenko to be inaugurated as Ukraine's fifth President. The official ceremonies took place on Sunday, January 23 at about noon, when Yushchenko undertook the constitutional oath was sworn in as President.
In November 2009 Yanukovych stated that although is victory in the elections was "taken away" he gave up this victory in order to avoid bloodshed. "I didn't want mothers to lose their children and wives their husbands. I didn't want dead bodies from Kyiv to flow down the Dnipro. I didn't want to assume power through bloodshed."
Aftermath
Despite alleged convincing evidence pointing to high-level involvement in the Kuchma administration and the Central Election Commission of UkraineCentral Election Commission of Ukraine
The Central Election Commission of Ukraine ; sometimes referred to as the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine) is a permanent and independent collegiate body of the Ukrainian government.- Mission and Authority :...
no criminal election fraud charges have been filed against any top officials. The prosecutor general did arrest several public figures on charges of election fraud in the first half of 2005, but no high-profile case was bought to court. On 23 September 2005 Yushchenko announced a pact with the Party of Regions
Party of Regions
The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others...
in which he promised to look into an amnesty for those convicted of vote rigging during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections. One of the top election-fraud suspects, former CEC head Serhiy Kivalov, is a Party of Regions
Party of Regions
The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others...
deputy who heads the Ukrainian Parliament’s Judiciary Committee.
During the 2010 presidential election
Ukrainian presidential election, 2010
The Ukrainian presidential election of 2010 is Ukraine's fifth presidential election since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The first round was held on January 17, 2010...
-campaign Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a Ukrainian politician who has been the President of Ukraine since February 2010.Yanukovych served as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002...
pledged to prevent electoral fraud during those elections: "We will properly respond to all provocations and attempts to fake election results”.