1991 Ukrainian independence referendum

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1991 Ukrainian independence referendum

1 December 1991

Do you support the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?
The result of the referendum in a bulletin.
Results
Choice
Votes %
Yes 28,804,071 92.26%
No 2,417,554 7.74%
Valid votes 31,221,625 97.90%
Invalid or blank votes 670,117 2.10%
Total votes 31,891,742 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 37,885,555 84.18%

Results by region
Yes:

A referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991.[1] An overwhelming majority of 93% of voters approved the declaration of independence made by the Verkhovna Rada on 24 August 1991.

Voters were asked "Do you support the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?"[2] The text of the Declaration was included as a preamble to the question. The referendum was called by the Parliament of Ukraine to confirm the Act of Independence, which was adopted by the Parliament on 24 August 1991.[3] Citizens of Ukraine expressed overwhelming support for independence. In the referendum, 31,891,742 registered voters (or 84.18% of the electorate) took part, and among them 28,804,071 (or 92.3%) voted "Yes".[2]

On the same day, a presidential election took place. In the month up to the presidential election, all six candidates campaigned across Ukraine in favour of independence from the Soviet Union, and a "Yes" vote in the referendum. Leonid Kravchuk, the parliament chairman and de facto head of state, was elected to serve as the first President of Ukraine.[4]

From 2 December 1991 onwards, Ukraine was

union of sovereign states".[12]

Ukraine was the second-most powerful republic in the Soviet Union both economically and politically (behind Russia), and its secession ended any realistic chance of Gorbachev keeping the USSR together. By December 1991 all

Belavezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.[15] The USSR officially dissolved on 26 December.[16]

Results

The ballot paper used in the referendum, with the text of the Declaration of Independence printed on it.

Ukrainian media had converted en masse to the independence ideal.

Polls showed 63% support for the "Yes" campaign in September 1991; that grew to 77% in the first week of October 1991 and 88% by mid-November 1991.[17]

55% of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine voted for independence.[18]

ChoiceVotes%
For28,804,07192.26
Against2,417,5547.74
Total31,221,625100.00
Valid votes31,221,62597.90
Invalid/blank votes670,1172.10
Total votes31,891,742100.00
Registered voters/turnout37,885,55584.18
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

By region

The Act of Independence was supported by a majority of participating voters in each of the 27

administrative regions of Ukraine: 24 oblasts, 1 autonomous republic, and 2 special municipalities (Kyiv City and Sevastopol City).[4] Voter turnout was lowest in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.[17]
The six regions with the lowest percentage of "yes" votes were Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Odesa Oblasts, Crimea, and Sevastopol; all of those regions still had a majority of registered voters marking their ballots "yes", except for Crimea and Sevastopol.

No-vote in % per Ukrainian Oblast
Subdivision
Percentage voting for independence
Of votes cast[4] Of electorate[19]
Crimean ASSR
54.19 37[20]
Cherkasy Oblast 96.03 87
Chernihiv Oblast 93.74 85
Chernivtsi Oblast 92.78 81
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 90.36 74
Donetsk Oblast 83.90 64
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast 98.42 94
Kharkiv Oblast 86.33 65
Kherson Oblast 90.13 75
Khmelnytskyi Oblast 96.30 90
Kyiv Oblast 95.52 84
Kirovohrad Oblast 93.88 83
Luhansk Oblast 83.86 68
Lviv Oblast 97.46 93
Mykolayiv Oblast
89.45 75
Odesa Oblast 85.38 64
Poltava Oblast 94.93 87
Rivne Oblast 95.96 89
Sumy Oblast 92.61 82
Ternopil Oblast 98.67 96
Vinnytsia Oblast 95.43 87
Volyn Oblast 96.32 90
Zakarpattia Oblast 92.59 77
Zaporizhzhia Oblast 90.66 73
Zhytomyr Oblast 95.06 86
Kyiv City 92.87 75
Sevastopol City 57.07 36[20]
National Total 90.32 76[21]

See also

References

External links