On November 23, 2004, two days after the second round of the presidential elections, mass rallies in support of the opposition candidate began in some cities of Ukraine. The main arena of popular discontent was Independence Square, where, according to various estimates, 100 to 000 protesters from all over the country gathered.
What happened 16 years ago in Ukraine, ElitExpert reminds.
The first revolution
On October 31, 2004, the first round of the presidential elections of Ukraine took place, according to the results of which Viktor Yushchenko (Viktor Yushchenko's Bloc "Our Ukraine") and Viktor Yanukovych ("Party of the Regions") won, who received almost the same number of votes - 39,87% and 39,32 % respectively. The next round of elections was held on November 21, 2004. With the announcement of the preliminary official voting results, it became clear that they differ from the data of the exit polls. According to the approval of the overwhelming majority of international organizations, the second round took place with gross violations of the electoral law and human rights, with the use of technologies of state-wide falsification of voting results, including interference with the electronic vote counting system of the Central Election Commission.
On November 23, rallies and pickets began not only on Independence Square in Kyiv, but also in front of the buildings of the Presidential Administration, the Verkhovna Rada, and the government, as well as in a number of regional centers. The distinctive sign of the demonstrators was the orange color - the color of Yushchenko's election campaign (Yanukovych's supporters used white and blue colors). The city authorities of Kyiv, Lviv and several other cities refused to recognize the legality of the official results, and Yushchenko himself took a symbolic oath before the people of Ukraine as the newly elected president from the podium of the Verkhovna Rada.
The next day, the negotiations between the government and the opposition reached an impasse, since Yushchenko's position did not envisage any other outcome of the negotiations, except for the proclamation of him as president. Yushchenko began negotiations with the current president Leonid Kuchma, wanting to achieve recognition of his victory, but after the announcement of the final results, according to which Yanukovych was recognized as the winner, Yushchenko appeared before his supporters in Kyiv, called on them to start the "Orange Revolution" and paralyze activity with the help of strikes government, forced the authorities not to recognize the election results. Yushchenko was supported by Alexander Moroz and Anatoly Kinakh, as well as Yulia Tymoshenko, his political partner in the People's Power coalition.
These days the country was on the brink of a full-scale political and economic crisis, but at that time the situation was managed to be regulated.
On November 25, the Supreme Court of Ukraine banned the publication of official election results, and on November 27, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declared the election results invalid and declared no confidence in the CEC.
On December 3, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, after a long-day discussion, recognized numerous violations of laws and the Constitution of Ukraine during the elections, as a result of which Yushchenko's demands were partially satisfied — in particular, the results of the second round of voting were declared invalid and a second vote was scheduled. For its implementation on December 8, the Verkhovna Rada changed the composition of the Central Election Commission and adopted amendments to the law on presidential elections in order to block the main channels of election fraud. In the package with them, the constitutional reform limiting the power of the President of Ukraine and transferring part of his powers to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Parliament was approved.
During the re-voting held on December 26, 2004, Viktor Yushchenko won with a result of 51,99% (Viktor Yanukovych won 44,20% of the votes). An attempt by Viktor Yanukovych's supporters to protest the results of the re-run second round of elections did not bring results, and even before the end of the court session, Viktor Yushchenko was officially recognized as the elected president of Ukraine.
A look through the years
Back in 2004, Ukrainians did not yet suspect that their protest would become only the first Maidan. However, even then a split in the country appeared, and Ukraine was divided into two political camps, relations between which worsened 16 years ago.
Looking at those events, it is safe to assume that the "Orange Revolution" could have taken place in roughly the same scenario as the second Maidan in 2014-2015. Politicians managed to reduce the degree of tension and avoid mass clashes. But the next revolution was only a matter of time.
