Ukrainian presidential election, 2004

The presidential election held in November and December 2004 in Ukraine was mostly a political battle between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and former Prime Minister and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. The election was held in a highly charged atmosphere, with allegations of media bias, intimidation and even a poisoning of Yushchenko that was later confirmed to be the result of the poison dioxin.

Runoff

In the November 21 runoff, Ukraine's electoral commission declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner. According to electoral commission data, Yanukovych had 49.42% and Yushchenko had 46.69% of the votes 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."

Related Topics:
November 21 - Ukraine - Observers for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - Richard Lugar - Election day

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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, mostly agricultural, 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 industrial eastern part, including the Crimean Autonomous Republic, where the links with Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church are much stronger, and which contains many ethnic Russians and fewer Ukrainians, is a Yanukovych stronghold.

Related Topics:
Country's history - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - 17th century - Ukrainian - Ukrainian Greek Catholic - Ukrainian Orthodox - Crimean Autonomous Republic - Russia - Russian Orthodox Church

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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, where a turnout of 98.5% was reportedly claimed—more than 40% up from the first round. In some districts, turnout was claimed to be more than 100%, with one district reported by observers to have claimed a 127% turnout. According to election observers and opposition figures, pro-Yanukovych activists traveled around the region and voted many times as absentees. Some groups dependent on government assistance, such as students, hospital patients and prisoners, were reportedly told to vote for the government candidate. Many other 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 claimed. It was later determined by the Ukrainian Supreme Court that this was in fact due to widespread falsification of the results.

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