Ukrainian presidential election, 1991

Ukrainian presidential election, 1991

1 December 1991

Nominee Leonid Kravchuk Viacheslav Chornovil Party Independent People's Movement Popular vote 19,643,481 7,420,727 Percentage 61.59% 23.27%

Results of the 1991 presidential election. Kravchuk won in all but three western provinces, which were won by Chornovil.

President before election None[1] Elected President Leonid Kravchuk Nonpartisan

A presidential election was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991.^[2] They were the first direct presidential elections in the country's history, the first completely free national elections of any sort since 1918, and only the second free elections in the country's history. Leonid Kravchuk, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and de facto acting president, was elected with 61.6% of the vote.^[3]

An independence referendum took place on the same day, with 91 percent voting to secede from the Soviet Union.^[3] All six presidential candidates supported independence and campaigned for a "yes" vote in the referendum.

Results

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Leonid Kravchuk	Independent	19,643,481	61.6
Viacheslav Chornovil	People's Movement of Ukraine	7,420,727	23.3
Levko Lukyanenko	Ukrainian Republican Party	1,432,556	4.5
Volodymyr Hryniov	Party of Democratic Revival of Ukraine	1,329,758	4.2
Ihor Yukhnovskyi	Independent	554,719	1.7
Leopold Taburyansky	People's Party of Ukraine	182,713	0.6
Against all		1,327,788	–
Invalid/blank votes			–
Total		31,891,742	100
Registered voters/turnout		37,885,555	84.2
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

1. Although not technically president at the time of the election, Leonid Kravchuk was the incumbent Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and temporarily empowered with presidential authority.
2. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1976 ISBN 9783832956097
3. Independence - over 90% vote yes in referendum; Kravchuk elected president of Ukraine, The Ukrainian Weekly (8 December 1991)