- Petro Symonenko
thumb|right|Symonenkopresidential election poster in 2004.Petro Mykolayovich Symonenko ( _ru. "Пётр Никола́евич Симоне́нко", _uk. "Петро Миколайович Симоненко") (born
August 1 ,1952 inDonetsk ) is a Ukrainian politician and the First Secretary of theCommunist Party of Ukraine . Symonenko was the Communist Party's candidate in both the 1999 and 2004 presidential elections. He became a member of the Soviet Communist Party since 1978, and has been its party chairman since 1993. He is the Chairman of the Communist Party Faction in theVerkhovna Rada (parliament). [http://portal.rada.gov.ua/rada/control/en/publish/article/info_left?art_id=102494&cat_id=102006 "Opening of the First Session of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 6th Convocation"] , Verkhovna Rada website, November 23, 2007.]He is a Ukrainian delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe . From 1994 to 1996 he was a member of the Ukrainian parliament's Constitution Commission.He was a candidate in the 1999 presidential election, receiving 22.24% of the votes in the first round and taking second place. In the second round he won 37.8% of the votes, losing to
Leonid Kuchma . His election program has classic communist content. Symonenko's support sharply declined at the time of the 2004 presidential election, largely because Kuchma could not run and some of his former supporters had defected from his party.Fact|date=June 2008 Symonenko received 5% of the votes and came in fourth place, unable to get into the controversial runoff which would cause theOrange Revolution .Symonenko was re-elected to the
Verkhovna Rada in the September 2007 parliamentary election. [http://www.pravda.com.ua/en/news/2007/11/5/9329.htm "The Makeup of the New Verkhovna Rada"] , "Ukrayinska Pravda", November 5, 2007.] At the opening of the new parliament's first session onNovember 23 2007 , he was re-elected as Chairman of the Communist Party faction.Commenting in 2007 on the
Holodomor , Symonenko said he "does not believe there was any deliberate starvation at all," and accused PresidentViktor Yushchenko of "using the famine to stir up hatred." In response, Yushchenko declared he wants "a new law criminalising Holodomor denial."Laura Sheeter, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7111296.stm "Ukraine remembers famine horror"] , "BBC News ",November 24 ,2007 ]References
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