Chamber:
	Verkhovna Rada
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	27 March1994 3 April 1994 10 April 1994
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the seats in Parliament in the first such poll since independence was attained in December 1991. The former Supreme Soviet had previously been chosen in March 1990.
Background and outcome of elections:
	The date of the 1994 election – the first since independence from the former USSR in December 1991 – was set on 24 September 1993. Polling ultimately spread over several rounds and months due mainly to the double absolute majority electoral law requirement described above. Originally, only two rounds had been planned. At the outset, a total of 5833 candidates and 28 registered parties vied for the 450 seats at stake. However, most individual contenders were in fact independents with no party allegiance. Campaign oratory focused on the country’s ailing economy (especially declining output and inflation) since independence and foreign policy orientation, there being a clean split on the latter issue between the eastern and western parts of Ukraine, with the more populous easterners favouring renewed close ties with Russia and their opposites taking a nationalist, anti-communist, more Europeanised stance. The first round of voting (27 March) filled only 49 seats but saw a large turnout which opened the way to further balloting and a June presidential election, which President of the Republic Leonid Kravchuk had hoped to postpone. Results after the second round (3 and 10 April), contested by some 3600 candidates, indicated a legislature controlled by left-wing and independent members, with the most seats (86) going to the Communist Party. Moderate nationalists trailed these groups considerably. International observers were somewhat critical of the polling procedure to this point characterising the Central Electoral Commission as politicised and inefficient. Due to low participation in a number of constituencies, 112 seats still remained to be filled. On 16 June, Mr. Vitali Masol, a former communist official turned independent, became Prime Minister. In the subsequent presidential elections, Mr. Leonid Kuchma, a former Prime Minister who pressed for economic reforms, defeated Mr. Kravchuk; he was inaugurated on 19 July. The newly elected Parliament, which held its first session on 11 May, is due to put the finishing touches on the independence Constitution, in preparation since 1992.

STATISTICS

Round no 1: Elections results
Number of registered electors	39,000,000 (approx.)
Voters	74.8%
Round no 2: Elections results
Number of registered electors	39,000,000 (approx.)
Voters	56.8%

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total
Left
- Communist Party	86
- Peasants’ Party	18
- Socialist Party	14
Centrists
- Inter-regional Bloc for Reform (Kuchma)	4
- Party of the Democratic Rebirth of Ukraine	4
- Labour Party	4
- Civic Congress	2
- Social Democracy Party	2
- Christian Democratic Party	1
Moderate nationalists
- Rukh (People’s Movement of Ukraine)	20
- Ukrainian Republican Party	8
- Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists	5
- Democratic Party of Ukraine	2
Extreme nationalists
- Ukrainian Self-Defence Organisation (UNA-UNSO)	3
- Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party	2
Independents	163

Comments:
	A third and, if necessary, further rounds of voting were to be held for the 112 unfilled seats.