Party of Regions

{{Infobox political party |country=Ukraine |party_name = Party of Regions |name_native = Партія регіонів |party_logo = |leader = Mykola Azarov The party ideologically defends and upholds the rights of ethnic Russians and speakers of the Russian language in Ukraine.

It originally supported president Leonid Kuchma and joined the pro-government United Ukraine alliance during the parliamentary elections on 30 March 2002. The party's leader is the former Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. The areas the Party of Regions does well in are mostly parts of historic Novorossiya. Its electoral and financial base is located primarily in the east and south-east of Ukraine, where it enjoys wide popular support. In the Eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Oblast the party claims to have over 700,000 members. The party is supported mostly by people older than 45 years.

The party signed a collaboration agreement in 2005 with Russia's "United Russia".

In 14 October 2010, the Party of Regions formed a co-operative arrangement a with the Socialists and Democrats European parliamentary group.

The party is planning to sign a memorandum on cooperation with China's Communist Party.

History

Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine

The founding congress of the Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine was held on 26 October 1997 in Kiev.

During the 1998 parliamentary elections Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine won 0,90% of the votes. The party was among top 10 in Chernivtsi and Donetsk oblasts.

In the summer 1999 the party entered the electoral bloc "Our choice - Leonid Kuchma", who endorsed incumbent President Leonid Kuchma in the presidential election of 1999.. On July 18, 2000, leaders of five political parties, inspired by Petro Poroshenko, leader of Solidarity, announced their willingness to join their parties into a single entity. On November 18, 2000, five political entities: the Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine, Solidarity, the Party of Labor, the Party for the Beautiful Ukraine and the National Party of Pensioners, merged into the new structure and three co-chairmen wher elected: Volodymyr Rybak of the Party of Regional Renaissance of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko and Valentyn Landyk, leader of the Party of Labor. It was joined by a number of others, among them (the future Mayor of Kiev) Leonid Chernovetsky and Mykola Azarov, a long-standing ally of then President Leonid Kuchma, who was elected leader of the party in March 2001 but resigned in December (2001). after several deputies defected from their original faction. Critics claimed the deputies were "lured away" from those other factions by pressure and analysts claimed most of them had nothing to do with the new party. Nine out of seventeen members of the faction had their political and business roots in the Donetsk region It was then lead by Volodymyr Semynozhenko.

From November 21, 2002 until December 7, 2004, Viktor Yanukovych was Prime Minister.

At a congress held on April 19, 2003 Viktor Yanukovych was elected party leader, succeeding Volodymyr Semynozhenko.

Electoral breakthrough

The party shifted its political ideology to the left and became much more populist in nature before the Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 and, as a result, Yanukovych won over a large part of the Communist party's electorate in eastern Ukraine. The party announced support for making Russian a second official language in Ukraine, a pro-Russian foreign policy, and increased social spending. It also advocates the regionalist ideology, and many members support making Ukraine a federation.

The Party of Regions moved to opposition after its candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, lost the 2004 presidential election. The party leader first claimed an electoral victory but strong allegations of electoral fraud triggered a series of events commonly known as the Orange Revolution. In the re-run of the presidential election ordered by the country's Supreme Court, Viktor Yanukovych lost the election to Viktor Yushchenko.

The Party claimed to be a victim of a political persecution campaign organized by the new government. Also because Borys Kolesnykov, the head of the regional party branch and the Donetsk regional council, was arrested in April 2005 and charged with criminal extortion. The Party of Regions claims this is an act of political repression, while the authorities believe that Kolesnykov had links to organized crime and his arrest is a purely criminal matter. The Council of Europe called the investigation "in full compliance with European standards". Kolesnykov has since been cleared of charges and released from pre-trial detention.

the percentage of total national vote) per region for the 2006 parliamentary election.]]

2006 Parliamentary Election results

At the parliamentary elections on 26 March 2006, the party gained 32,14%

On January 19, 2007, Yevhen Kushnaryov, a member of Party of Regions' died in Izium as a result of an accidental gunshot wound received while hunting.

In mid-2007, the Ukrainian Republican Party and Labour Ukraine merged into the Party of Regions.

2007 Parliamentary Election results

At the parliamentary elections held on 30 September 2007, the party won 175 seats (losing 11 seats) out of 450 seats with 34.37% of the total national vote. Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, he noted that: "We are ready to unite but only on the base of the program on struggle with crisis". The previous day the deputy leader of Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction, Andriy Portnov, said that the union of his political force with the Party of Regions is highly improbable but that the union of the BYuT and the Party of Regions could be possible after the next Ukrainian presidential elections. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko stated on March 17, 2009 that her bloc was ready to join efforts with the Regions Party to pass certain bills in the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada). "You are a representative of the Regions Party, [and] I represent the BYuT. It's time to join efforts for the benefit of the country," Tymoshenko said. On March 30, 2009 Victor Yanukovych stated he did not believe in the possibility of forming a coalition with Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in the current parliament. At the same time he added that “it would be necessary to agree on main issues” concerning amendments into the Constitution of Ukraine in the part of local self-government reform, judicial reform and clear division of authorities among President, government and parliament. According to Yanukovych talks with BYuT where still ongoing late May 2008.

Early June talks to build a broad coalition to address the economic crisis collapsed, Yulia Tymoshenko accused Yanukovich of betrayal: “He unilaterally, without warning anyone, quit the negotiation process, making a loud political statement, killing the merger and the chances for Ukraine”.

In September 2009 Member of Parliament Vasyl Kiselev was expelled from the party and the political council of the Party of Regions. Kiselev was expelled “for violation of provisions and demands of the charter of the Party of Regions and harming the reputation of the party”.

Yanukoych presidency

The Party of Regions endorsed Viktor Yanukoych as their candidate for the 2010 presidential election. The party indented to create a new coalition in the Verkhovna Rada and form a new government if Yanukovych would win the 2010 presidential elections. Yanukovych was elected President of Ukraine on February 7, 2010. On February 19 the Ukrainian parliament terminated the powers of Ukrainian Member of Parliament (MP) Yanukovych, in his place #179th on the electoral list of the Party of Regions at the 2007 early parliamentary elections Tamara Yehorenko was registered as an MP by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine on February 26. On March 3 Ukrainian President Yanukovych suspended his membership in the Party (Yanukovych was barred by the Constitution from heading a political party) and handed over leadership in the party and in the parliamentary faction to Mykola Azarov

The party elected a new leader at its 12th congress on April 23, 2010. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov was elected.

Seven extra deputies (four Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko members) joined the Party of Regions faction in October 2010.

During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections the party won majorities on most regional and city councils as well as most of the mayoralties (except in western Ukraine), and in the 2010 Crimean parliamentary election (where it won over 70% of the seats).

In 14 October 2010, the Party of Regions formed a co-operative arrangement a with the Socialists and Democrats European parliamentary group.

Party's electoral results

{| class="wikitable" style="float:left" |- style="background-color:#C9C9C9" ! colspan="9"|Parliamentary since 1998

Vremya Regionov

Party of Regions publishes a nation-wide newspaper called Время Регионов (). The newspaper is based and published in Kiev, the newspaper is published weekly in Ukrainian and Russian. The newspaper was launched on 24 August, 2008. The newspaper is available online in PDF format.

See also

Viktor Yanukovych

Rinat Akhmetov

Yevhen Kushnaryov

Alliance of National Unity

2006 Ukrainian political crisis

2007 Ukrainian political crisis

2008 Ukrainian political crisis

Politics of Ukraine

References

External links

Official web site of the party Press-center of the central staff on local elections Official website of the youth wing of Party of Regions Vremya Regionov

Party of Regions (Ukraine) Category:Political parties established in 1997