Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 29 March 1998. The Communist Party of Ukraine remained the largest party in the Verkhovna Rada, winning 121 of the 445 seats. After the election votes in five electoral districts had too many irregularities to declare a winner and the parliament was five members short of 450.
Electoral system
In comparison to the first parliamentary election, this time half of 450 parliament seats were filled by single-seat majority winners in 225 electoral regions, and the other half were split among political parties and blocks that received at least 4% of the popular vote.
Results
The Communist Party of Ukraine was victorious in 18 regions including the city of Kiev, while in three other regions the party finished in second place. The People's Movement of Ukraine won in five regions, all of them located in Western Ukraine and was a strong runner-up in three others, mostly in the west and Kiev. The electoral block of Socialists and Peasants was able to secure a victory in only two regions, however it did finish strong in seven other regions across central Ukraine. The new and rising party of Hromada won the Dnipropetrovsk Region, while the Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine managed to secure the Zakarpattia Region. Notable and strong runners up were the Party of Greens, the People's Democratic Party, the Progressive Socialist Party, the People's Party, Working Ukraine, the National Front and Our Ukraine.
By regions (single constituency)
;Crimea
No party affiliation: Serhiy Ivanov, Anatoliy Rakhansky, Valeriy Horbatov, Refat Chubarov, Anatoliy Franchuk
Communist Party of Ukraine: Yevhen Leshan, Viktor Myronenko
The size of the factions created in parliament after the election fluctuated. By January 2000, the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and Hromada had not had any deputies; while Peasant Party of Ukraine had deputies only in 1999. All these factions where disbanded due to the lack of members. Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine grew massively in parliament from 2 deputies elected in this election to a faction of 24 people in July 2002. Later to become second biggest party of Ukraine, Batkivshchyna, started its existence as a faction when in the spring of 1999 members of Hromada left their party to join other parliament factions, among them Yulia Tymoshenko who set up the parliamentary faction "Batkivshchyna" in March 1999. People's Movement of Ukraine split into 2 different factions in the spring of 1999. Other mayor "non-elected" factions/parties to emerge in parliament after the election were: Solidarity and Labour Ukraine ; by June 2002 the parliament had 8 more factions then its original 8 in May 1998.
