Lytvyn Bloc
Блок Литвина
LeaderVolodymyr Lytvyn
First DeputySerhiy Hrynevetsky
Parliamentary leaderIhor Fedorovych Sharov
Founded2006
Dissolved15 December 2012[1]
IdeologyCentrism[2][3]
Agrarianism[3]
International affiliationNone
ColoursGreen

The Lytvyn Bloc, formerly Lytvyn's People's Bloc, (Ukrainian: Блок Литвина, formerly Народний блок Литвина) was a centrist[2] political alliance in Ukraine from 2006 till 2012 led by Volodymyr Lytvyn. It is one of successors of the previous political alliance For United Ukraine which fell apart after Party of Regions left it. In 2007, the bloc surprisingly managed to return to parliament as a union of the People's Party and the Labour Party. According to Lytvyn the party had 400,000 members in October 2009.[4]

On 17 November 2011 the Ukrainian Parliament approved an election law that banned the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections.[5]

History

Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2006

Main article: 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election

During the 2006 parliamentary elections, the bloc was known as Lytvyn's People's Bloc and consisted of:

The bloc had been organized for participation in the 2006 parliamentary election. The electoral bloc's list was headed by:

# Name Prior Position
1 Volodymyr Lytvyn Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada
2 Sofia Rotaru Singer
3 Leonid Kadenyuk Astronaut
4 Valeriy Smoliy Head of the Institute of History of Ukraine
5 Vasyl Maliarenko Head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine

In the election, which took place on 26 March 2006, the bloc won 2.44%[6] of the popular vote and no seat in the Verkhovna Rada, which was one of the main surprises of the election.

Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2007

Map showing the results of the bloc percentage of total national vote) per region for the 2007 parliamentary election.

Main article: 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election

In the early parliamentary election held on September 30, 2007, the Lytvyn Bloc consisted of

The bloc won 3.96%[6] of the popular vote, with this result the block placed in fifth place, after the Communist Party and Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc.[7] It won 20 out of 450 seats.

After the 2008 Ukrainian political crisis the Lytvyn Bloc joined the ruling two party coalition. On December 16, 2008, a government was formed representing a 245-seat majority of the parliament, between the Lytvyn Bloc, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc.[8]

On February 21, 2010, during a party congress of Strong Ukraine (renamed Labor Party in November 2009) announced that it leaves the parliamentary faction of Lytvyn bloc and in an electoral alliance with the party Information Ukraine creating the Tigipko Bloc.[9][10] One of the representatives of Lytvyn Bloc, however, noted that the members of parliament from Lytvyn Bloc cannot be recalled from the parliament, because they were elected as part of the parliamentary faction, but they may leave voluntarily if they will surrender their mandates.

On March 11, 2010, together with Party of Regions and Communist Party of Ukraine the bloc joined the first Azarov Government[11]

In October 2010 one deputy of the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc faction joined the Lytvyn Bloc faction.[12]

In November 2010 the Bloc of Lytvyn faction in the Verkhovna Rada was renamed People's Party faction.[13]

Dissolution

A March 2010 poll predicted that a "Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc" would get 1.3% of the vote at the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[14]

In August 2011 People's Party and Strong Ukraine announced they will merge with fellow Ukrainian party Party of Regions.[15][16] Strong Ukraine and Party of Regions merged on 17 March 2012.[17] The merge between People's Party and Party of Regions did not materialize.[18]

On 17 November 2011 the Ukrainian Parliament approved an election law that banned the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections.[5]

Mid-December 2011 Lytvyn stated that People's Party will participate in the 2012 parliamentary elections independently.[18] In that election, the party won 2 seats in the Ukrainian parliament.[19]

References

  1. ^ You Scratch My Back, and I’ll Scratch Yours, The Ukrainian Week (26 September 2012)
  2. ^ a b "Ukraine rivals claim poll victory". BBC News. October 2, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2007). "Ukraine". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012.
  4. ^ Lytvyn: People’s Party to decide on its candidate for Ukraine’s presidency on October 21, Kyiv Post (October 14, 2009)
  5. ^ a b Parliament passes law on parliamentary elections, Kyiv Post (17 November 2011)
  6. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Народна Партія, Database DATA
  7. ^ "Parties (blocs of parties), who get three (3%) and more percents of votes of voters". Central Election Commission of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  8. ^ Three factions sign coalition agreement, Kyiv Post (December 16, 2008)
  9. ^ (in Ukrainian) Тігіпко створив свій виборчий блок, Gazeta.ua (February 22, 2010)
  10. ^ Тігіпко створив блок свого імені, dailylviv.com (February 22, 2010)
  11. ^ Ukrainian parliament creates new coalition, Kyiv Post (March 11, 2010)
  12. ^ Seven individual MPs join Regions Party faction, Our Ukraine MP joins Lytvyn Bloc Archived 2012-01-20 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Bloc of Lytvyn faction renamed, Kyiv Post (November 19, 2010)
  14. ^ Party Of Regions, Tymoshenko bloc, Strong Ukraine, Front for Change and Communist Party would get into parliament, Kyiv Post (April 12, 2010)
  15. ^ Azarov: We welcome other parties joining Regions Party, Kyiv Post (August 23, 2011)
  16. ^ Azarov: Regions Party teams up with Strong Ukraine, Kyiv Post (August 16, 2011)
  17. ^ Tigipko hooks up with Party of Regions, Kyiv Post (20 March 2012)
    Strong Ukraine party decides on disbanding to join Regions Party, Kyiv Post (17 March 2012)
  18. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Литвин поведе Народну партію на вибори саму, Ukrayinska Pravda (12 December 2011)
  19. ^ Party of Regions gets 185 seats in Ukrainian parliament, Batkivschyna 101 - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (12 November 2012)

External links

Political parties in Ukraine (list)
Categories