At stake in this election:

• 450 seats in the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Viktor A. YUSHCHENKO
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Yuriy YEKHANUROV
• Assembly: Ukraine has a unicameral Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) with 450 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
• The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
• In the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) 450 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Party of Regions (PRU)*
  • Leader: Viktor YANUKOVYCH
  • Seats won in this election: 175
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Bloc: Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYT)
  • Leader: Yulia TYMOSHENKO
  • Seats won in this election: 156
  • Seats won in last election: 22
• Bloc: People's Union Our Ukraine / (NSNU)
  • Leader: Yuriy YEKHANUROV
  • Seats won in this election: 72
  • Seats won in last election: 112
• Party: Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU)
  • Leader: Oleksandr MOROZ
  • Seats won in this election: 27
  • Seats won in last election: 23
• Party: Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU)
  • Leader: Petro SYMONENKO
  • Seats won in this election: 20
  • Seats won in last election: 65

* PRU contested the last election as part of the bloc For United Ukraine, which won a total of 101 seats in the parliament.

Last Parliamentary election:

• The last parliamentary election was held on March 31, 2002.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 46,929,500 (January 2006 est.)
• Registered Voters: 37,173,544 (February 2006)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 25,109,472 (2006)

·         Is Ukraine a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)

·         Has Ukraine ratified CEDAW: Yes (12 March 1981)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 39 (following the 2006 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 81 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Low (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Ukraine a signatory to CRPD: Yes (24 September 2008)

·         Has Ukraine ratified CRPD: Yes (4 February 2010)

·         Population with a disability: 7,039,425 (est.)