What the 21 July 2019 vote meant for Ukraine's parliament
A look back at the early parliamentary election that gave President Zelensky's party a majority in the Verkhovna Rada.
What did Ukraine's voters decide in the election held on 21 July 2019, and how did the results look when attention turned to them on 22 July 2019? The vote chose the new members of the Verkhovna Rada, after President Volodymyr Zelensky dissolved the previous parliament in May.
The election had originally been scheduled for the end of October. It was brought forward after Zelensky, newly inaugurated, dissolved parliament on 21 May 2019, during his inauguration.
As reported at the time, five political parties passed the threshold to enter the Verkhovna Rada: Servant of the People, Opposition Platform – For Life, European Solidarity, the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party and Holos (Voice). In addition, 199 deputies were elected under the majoritarian system in single-member constituencies.
Servant of the People, the president's party, won most of the seats with a comfortable majority. Later accounts put its tally at 254 seats, an outright majority in the chamber.
The result meant that the president's party, rather than a fragmented field, was positioned to dominate the new parliament that emerged from the early vote.
