The Ternopil Oblast local election, 2009 elections in the Ternopil Oblast regional council, were held on March 15, 2009.Тернопільська обласна радаRada Cancels Early Elections Of Ternopil Regional Council , Ukrainian News Agency (March 3, 2009)

Background The vote was initially appointed on December 18, 2008 by a decision of Ukrainian Parliament initiated by the Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), Стаття щодо виборів до Тернопільської облради на сайті газети «День», Den (February 7, 2009) but cancelled on 3 March 2009 by the same Parliament, with most members of BYuT voting against holding the snap elections, allegedly because of the fall of the party's ratings.Стаття в «Україні Молодій» , Україна Молода (February 10, 2009) Following a lawsuit filed by the Svoboda the Ternopil oblast` court acknowledged this decision to be illegal on March 11, 2009.«Українська Правда» The next day BYuT lodged an appeal in the Lviv Administrative Appeal Court against this decision.BYT appeals against court ruling on Ternopil regional council elections on March 15, Interfax-Ukraine (March 12, 2009)

On 13 March 2009, President Viktor Yushchenko asked the Constitutional Court to estimate the constitutionality of the Ukrainian Parliament’s decision to cancel the early regional council elections in Ternopil. According to Yushchenko the Constitution reads that Parliament can appoint elections or early elections into the local authorities, but cannot cancel them.Yuschenko Asking Constitutional Court To Estimate Constitutionality Of Cancellation Of Early Ternopil Regional Council Elections By Rada , Ukrainian News Agency (March 13, 2009)

Election The elections were held on 15 March 2009.Committee of Electors of Ukraine registers no major violations at elections to Ternopil regional council, Interfax-Ukraine (15 March 2009) The Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko called the election "the presentation of cynical electoral fraud by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Viktor Baloha against expression of the will of the region's citizens".BYT intends to challenge in court results of elections to Ternopil regional council, Interfax-Ukraine (15 March 2009)

Some villages reported cases Party of Regions representatives offering ₴50 per vote.

Challenging the results

On March 24, the Ternopil district administrative court rejected a lawsuit from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) challenging the results of the elections. Four days later the Kyiv district administrative court banned the official publication of the result of the elections.

On April 7 the Lviv administrative court of appeals ruled to cancel a decision of the Ternopil district administrative court denying consideration of a lawsuit from BYuT against the results of the elections to the Ternopil regional council. The Lviv administrative court of appeals instructed the Ternopil district administrative court to consider the essence of the lawsuit.Lviv Appeal Court Decides To Consider Suit Of BYT Challenging Results Of Elections To Ternopil Regional Council , Ukrainian News Agency (April 9, 2009)

On May 11, 2009 BYuT members gave up their twelve seats in Ternopil regional council. As a result, the number of deputies in the regional Ternopil council became 208. The overall number of mandates in the council still constitutes 120, and all the decisions taken by the majority of the council still has to be passed by no less than 61 votes.BYT MPs give up seats in Ternopil regional council, Interfax-Ukraine (May 11, 2009)

On June 16, 2009 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine deemed the parliamentary resolution on canceling early election to Ternopil Regional Council (of March 3, 2009) unconstitutional. This case was initiated by President Viktor Yuschenko.Constitutional Court deems unconstitutional parliamentary resolution on canceling early election to Ternopil Regional Council, Interfax-Ukraine (June 16, 2009)

Results

The election have been conducted after the proportional electoral system. In an order to conduct the representatives in the Ternopil regional council, party or block must collect not less than 3% voices of electors.

According to political annalist the scores of United Centre and Party of Regions could be caused by mass fraud. Experts were less surprised by the high score of All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" because (according to the think tank "Open Policy") support for rightist parties like "Freedom" typically builds up in conditions of economic and political crisis and "Freedom" has roots in the region.High tallies of PR and YT in Ternopil indicate fraud or pollsters’ slips, ZIK (17 March 2009)Results of Ternopil elections to force BYUT and Regions to alter Constitution , ZIK (17 March 2009) The turnout in Ternopil (city) was only 25%. +№PartyVotesVotes %ВО «Свобода» — Результати паралельного підрахунку голосів на Тернопільських виборах Генеральна репетиція президентських виборів: на Тернопільщині стався прогнозований тріумф націоналістів і крах Тимошенко, Ukrayina Moloda (March 17, 2009) 1 All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" 153 038 34,45 2 United Centre 63 143 14,32 3 Party of Regions 43,432 9,78 4 Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc 36 056 8,12 5 Ukrainian People's Party 35 647 8,03 6 People's Union "Our Ukraine" 24 439 5,50 7 Lytvyn Bloc 15 908 3,58 8 Socialist Party of Ukraine 9 252 2,08 9 PORA 6 230 1,40 10 Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists 5 380 1,21 11 Civil Movement "People's Self-Defense" 2 895 0,65 12 Communist Party of Ukraine 2 291 0,52 13 Great Ukraine 1 726 0,47 14 Agrarian Party 1 501 0,43 15 New Politics 1 168 0,33 16 New Democracy 1 126 0,32 Against all 6,16Вибори в Тернополі Invalid bulletins 3,13Total turnout 52.02%Явка избирателей по Тернопольской обл. по состоянию на 20:00 составила больше 50%, - ТИК , РБК-Украина (March 15, 2009)+

Polls Party: Results last electionSource: Official website Ternopil Oblast CouncilОсновна політична тенденція виборів до Тернопільської облради: падіння рейтингів БЮТ та НСНУ , ZIK (January 27, 2009) Sociological group "Rating" (January 27, 2009) Den (February 7, 2009) BYuT 34.23% 28,7% 20% PR <3%* 2,4% np** OU-PSD 31.27% 15%*** (PU-"OU") 2% - 3% CPU <3% np np LB <3% 5,6% np SPU 3.3% 0,7% np Svoboda <3% 16,1% 12% - 15% UNB Kostenko and Plyushch† 8.65% 1.6† (UPP) np PSD*** dnp** 3,0% np UC dnp 2,8% 5% PORA 3% 1,6% Against all Not going to vote Unsure 20%* Political parties or election blocs need to collect at least 3% of the total vote for all parties in order to gain seats in parliament.** "np" stands for "not polled". "dnp" stands for "did not participate".*** As People's Union "Our Ukraine" running alone (without Civil Movement "People's Self-Defense" a.o.)† UNB Kostenko and Plyushch became defunct,Official website - history section , Ukrainian People's Party the original Bloc participant Ukrainian People's Party participated in the election alone

Ternopil city council The elections to Ternopil city council took place in fall of 2010.

Mayor elections Mayor elections Serhiy Nadal (Svoboda) - 27% (25,988 votes) Roman Zastavny (For Ukraine!) - 16% (15,709 votes) Petro Hoch (Party of Regions) - 13% (12,630 votes)

See also 2010 Ukrainian local elections 2008 Kyiv local election

References

External links Official website Ternopil Oblast Council election news Ukrainian local elections, 2010 (West) Results of the local elections (Ternopil city)