1999 Ukrainian presidential election

Common card · No. 361445

Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 October 1999, with a second round on 14 November. The result was a victory for Leonid Kuchma, who defeated Petro Symonenko in the run-off, winning a second consecutive presidential election. Kuchma, who had been elected on a leftist programme in 1994 before subsequently abandoning it for economic liberalisation, was extremely unpopular prior to the election, with a reputation for patronage and ties to large corporations and organised crime. Two major opponents of Kuchma were unable to compete in the election: Pavlo Lazarenko of the centrist Hromada was arrested in the United States on money laundering and embezzlement charges, while Viacheslav Chornovil, leader of the centre-right Rukh, died in a traffic collision under disputed circumtances. Kuchma's main opponents were Oleksandr Moroz, leader of the centre-left Socialist Party, and far-left candidates Petro Symonenko and Nataliya Vitrenko; Moroz, Kuchma's most significant opponent, was...

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