As of 2024, this is the only re-election of an incumbent president in the history of independent Ukraine.
Electoral system
At the time of election the population in Ukraine was 50,105,600 with 34,017,400 living in cities.[citation needed] The Donetsk Oblast, the most populous oblast, contained the most electoral districts, with 23. The least electoral districts among oblasts were in the Chernivtsi Oblast, which only had 4. The city of Kyiv had 12 electoral districts and Sevastopol 2. There also was a special out-of-country district available for voters who at the time of elections were not available to vote in Ukraine.
Registration
There were 32 individuals who submitted their documents for registration as candidates for the Presidency of Ukraine. Of them, 19 were registered with the Central Election Commission of Ukraine to run for presidential elections; the other 13 had their registrations denied.
All pretenders were required to collect signatures to become candidates. In the process ten pretenders were not able to gather the required signatures, while six were reinstated on decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. Later another two registered candidates withdrew.
During the campaign Kuchma was supported by the Bloc "Our Choice – Leonid Kuchma!"[3][4]
On 27 October 1999 Oliynyk and Tkachenko withdrew from the election campaign.
Conduct
According to historian Serhy Yekelchyk President Kuchma's administration "employed electoral fraud freely" during the election.[5]
Results
In the first round the most oblasts and the out-of-country district were won by Leonid Kuchma. In seven oblasts the top candidate was Petro Symonenko mostly in the centre and south. Oleksandr Moroz managed to become the leader in the more agrarian oriented Poltava and Vinnytsia Oblasts. Nataliya Vitrenko took the peak of the candidate list in the Sumy Oblast.
Fritz, D. V. "State-Building: A Comparative Study of Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia". Central European University Press. Budapest 2008. ISBN9637326995
