Political parties in Ukraine

This article presents the historical development and role of political parties in Ukrainian politics, and outlines more extensively the significant modern political parties since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.

Ukraine has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. In the (October 2014 and last) Ukrainian parliamentary election 52 political parties nominated candidates. In the last nationwide (October 2015) local elections this number had grown to 132 political parties.

Many parties in Ukraine have very small memberships and are unknown to the general public. Party membership in Ukraine is lower than 1% of the population eligible to vote (compared to an average 4.7% in the European Union). National parties currently not represented in Ukraine’s national parliament Verkhovna Rada do have representatives in municipal counsels. Small parties used to join in multi-party coalitions (electoral blocks) for the purpose of participating in parliamentary elections; but on November 17, 2011 the Ukrainian Parliament approved an election law that banned the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections. Ukrainian society's trust of political parties is very low overall. According to an April 2014 poll by Razumkov Centre 14.7%.

Parties can only register with the Ministry of Justice if they can "demonstrate a base of support in two-thirds of Ukraine's Oblasts" (Ukraine's 24 primary administrative units). Then within six months the party must establish regional offices in a majority of the 24 oblasts. In practice these offices rarely stay active and open in-between elections.

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