Democratic Bloc

"Democratic Bloc" redirects here. For the Bahraini political party, see Progressive Democratic Tribune - Bahrain.

For Polish political coalition from 1947 see Democratic Bloc (Poland).

Democratic Bloc (Ukrainian: Демократичний Блок; Demokratychnyi Blok) was a political alliance and an electoral bloc in Ukraine founded during the election campaign to participate in the parliamentary election held during March 4-18, 1990.

History

The elections in the spring of 1990 were the first where the Soviet-authorities allowed the formation of full-fledged political parties that varied in their political agendas.^[1] The first democratic bloc that consisted of various smaller parties was formed during the election. The "Democratic Bloc" included the People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh), Helsinki Watch Committee of Ukraine, Green World Association, and various other organizations.^[2] It managed to obtained 111 seats out of 442 in Verkhovna Rada. The democratic deputies formed the "Narodna Rada" group, which consisted of around 90 to 125 members and was the opposition to the conservative-communist "group of 239" in the parliament ("for the sovereign Soviet Ukraine").^[3] Ihor Yukhnovskyi became the leader of the group.

During the next parliamentary election of 1994 the above mentioned parties didn't cooperate as "Democratic Bloc", but rather went their separate ways. Eventually by the end of 2000s the People's Movement of Ukraine became part of the Our Ukraine block (an electoral alliance of 72 out of 450 parliamentary seats). Helsinki Watch Committee of Ukraine ceased to exist, but its 1990s offspring, Ukrainian Republican Party "Sobor", became also part of Our Ukraine. The Green World Association transformed itself into the Party of Greens of Ukraine, but that party hasn't won any seats in the Ukrainian Parliament since the 1998 parliamentary election.

References

1. ^ Serhy Yekelchyk "Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation", Oxford University Press (2007), ISBN 9780195305463, page 187
2. ^ Subtelny, Orest (2000). Ukraine: A History. University of Toronto Press. p. 577. ISBN 0-8020-8390-0. 
3. ^ "Trends of independence: Elections in Ukraine" (in Ukrainian). kandydat.com.ua. February 1, 2006. http://www.kandydat.com.ua/politika/01_02.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-02.