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Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 29 March 1998.[1] The Communist Party of Ukraine remained the largest party in the Verkhovna Rada, winning 121 of the 445 seats.[2]
After the election votes in five electoral districts had too many irregularities to declare a winner and the parliament was five members short of 450.
In comparison to the first parliamentary election, this time half of 450 parliament seats were filled by single-seat majority winners in 225 electoral regions (constituencies), and the other half were split among political parties and blocks[3] that received at least 4% of the popular vote.[4]
The Communist Party of Ukraine was victorious in 18 regions including the city of Kyiv, while in three other regions the party finished in second place. The People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) won in five regions, all of them located in Western Ukraine and was a strong runner-up in three others, mostly in the west and Kyiv. The electoral block of Socialists and Peasants was able to secure a victory in only two regions, however it did finish strong in seven other regions across central Ukraine. The new and rising party of Hromada won the Dnipropetrovsk Region, while the Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine managed to secure the Zakarpattia Region.
Notable and strong runners up were the Party of Greens, the People's Democratic Party, the Progressive Socialist Party, the People's Party, Working Ukraine, the National Front and Our Ukraine.
| Party | Proportional | Constituency | Total seats | +/– | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
| Communist Party of Ukraine | 6,550,353 | 25.44 | 84 | 3,495,711 | 13.62 | 37 | 121 | +35 | |
| People's Movement of Ukraine | 2,498,262 | 9.70 | 32 | 1,500,648 | 5.85 | 14 | 46 | +26 | |
| Socialist Party – Peasant Party | 2,273,788 | 8.83 | 29 | 1,067,267 | 4.16 | 5 | 34 | +1 | |
| Party of Greens of Ukraine | 1,444,264 | 5.61 | 19 | 196,044 | 0.76 | 0 | 19 | +19 | |
| People's Democratic Party | 1,331,460 | 5.17 | 17 | 985,770 | 3.84 | 11 | 28 | +24 | |
| Hromada | 1,242,235 | 4.82 | 16 | 880,073 | 3.43 | 8 | 24 | New | |
| Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine | 1,075,118 | 4.18 | 14 | 231,043 | 0.90 | 2 | 16 | New | |
| Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) | 1,066,113 | 4.14 | 14 | 450,522 | 1.76 | 3 | 17 | New | |
| Agrarian Party of Ukraine | 978,330 | 3.80 | 0 | 784,287 | 3.06 | 9 | 9 | New | |
| Reforms and Order Party | 832,574 | 3.23 | 0 | 455,166 | 1.77 | 3 | 3 | New | |
| Laborious Ukraine (GKU–UPS) | 813,326 | 3.16 | 0 | 123,869 | 0.48 | 1 | 1 | –1 | |
| National Front (KUN–UKRP–URP) | 721,966 | 2.80 | 0 | 642,125 | 2.50 | 5 | 5 | –10 | |
| Together (LPU–PP) | 502,969 | 1.95 | 0 | 309,371 | 1.21 | 1 | 1 | –3 | |
| Forward Ukraine! (KDS–UKDP) | 461,924 | 1.79 | 0 | 129,378 | 0.50 | 2 | 2 | +2 | |
| Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine | 344,826 | 1.34 | 0 | 190,783 | 0.74 | 2 | 2 | +1 | |
| Bloc of Democratic Parties – NEP (DPU–PEV) | 326,489 | 1.27 | 0 | 275,460 | 1.07 | 1 | 1 | –1 | |
| Party of National Economic Development of Ukraine | 250,476 | 0.97 | 0 | 28,418 | 0.11 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| SLON – Social Liberal Association (Viche–MBR) | 241,367 | 0.94 | 0 | 112,968 | 0.44 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine | 241,262 | 0.94 | 0 | 204,631 | 0.80 | 2 | 2 | New | |
| All-Ukrainian Party of Workers | 210,622 | 0.82 | 0 | 57,463 | 0.22 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Soyuz | 186,249 | 0.72 | 0 | 38,467 | 0.15 | 1 | 1 | New | |
| All-Ukrainian Party of Women's Initiatives | 154,650 | 0.60 | 0 | 18,208 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Republican Christian Party | 143,496 | 0.56 | 0 | 70,064 | 0.27 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Ukrainian National Assembly | 105,977 | 0.41 | 0 | 88,136 | 0.34 | 0 | 0 | –1 | |
| Social Democratic Party of Ukraine | 85,045 | 0.33 | 0 | 36,670 | 0.14 | 0 | 0 | –2 | |
| Motherland Defenders Party | 81,808 | 0.32 | 0 | 26,286 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Party of Spiritual, Economic and Social Progress | 53,147 | 0.21 | 0 | 28,418 | 0.11 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Party of Muslims of Ukraine | 52,613 | 0.20 | 0 | 1,342 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Fewer Words (SNPU–DSU) | 45,155 | 0.18 | 0 | 65,760 | 0.26 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| European Choice of Ukraine (LDPU–USDP) | 37,118 | 0.14 | 0 | 59,474 | 0.23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine | 17,656 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
| Women's Party of Ukraine | 15,867 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
| Party of Slavic Unity of Ukraine | 12,470 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists | 1,944 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Party of National Salvation of Ukraine | 1,544 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Independents | 11,148,333 | 43.43 | 111 | 111 | –57 | ||||
| Vacant | 5 | 5 | – | ||||||
| Against all | 1,396,592 | 5.42 | – | 1,915,531 | 7.46 | – | – | – | |
| Total | 25,749,574 | 100.00 | 225 | 25,667,167 | 100.00 | 225 | 450 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 25,749,574 | 96.91 | 25,667,167 | 96.60 | |||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 821,699 | 3.09 | 904,106 | 3.40 | |||||
| Total votes | 26,571,273 | 100.00 | 26,571,273 | 100.00 | |||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 37,540,092 | 70.78 | 37,540,092 | 70.78 | |||||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver, University of Essex | |||||||||
The size of the factions created in parliament after the election fluctuated.[6] By January 2000, the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and Hromada had not had any deputies; while Peasant Party of Ukraine had deputies only in 1999.[6] All these factions where disbanded due to the lack of members.[7]
Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine (later to become the biggest party of Ukraine as Party of Regions[8]) grew massively in parliament (after in March 2001 it united with four parties) from 2 deputies elected in this election to a faction of 24 people in July 2002 (one deputy left the faction later).[6][9][10] Later to become second biggest party of Ukraine,[8] Batkivshchyna, started its existence as a faction when in the spring of 1999 members of Hromada left their party to join other parliament factions, among them Yulia Tymoshenko who set up the parliamentary faction "Batkivshchyna" in March 1999.[11][12][13]
People's Movement of Ukraine split into 2 different factions in the spring of 1999 (the largest membership of the breakaway faction led by Hennadiy Udovenko was 19 and ended with 14, the "other" faction ended with 23; meaning that 10 elected People's Movement of Ukraine deputies did not represent any segment of the party anymore by June 2002).[6][7]
Other mayor "non-elected" factions/parties to emerge in parliament after the election were: Solidarity[14] (27 to 20 members[6]) and Labour Ukraine[15] (38 members in June 2002[6]); by June 2002 the parliament had 8 more factions then its original 8 in May 1998.[6]
