PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN UKRAINE – AN ANALYSIS OF RESULTS BY REGIONS AND CULTURAL-HISTORICAL REGIONALISATION

Petrović Dragan (Viši naučni saradnik u Institutu za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, Beograd), draganp@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

The presidential elections in Ukraine that took place in early 2010 are an important event in the internal polical life of this big East European country, while on the other hand, they will affect its foriegn policy position in the coming years. In this paper, the author has chosen to analyse the results of the elections by the Ukraine administrative regions. Thus, he concludes that in spite of the overall victory by Viktor Yanukovich by 3.5 per cent of votes gained in the second ballot over hitherto prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, tbe regional differences have remained outstanding. Actually, there is a prominent difference between the north-western part of the country where voters mostly support nationally-orientated political candidates and south-eastern part where voters mostly support pro-Russian ones.

Keywords: 2010 presidential elections in Ukraine, tendencies in regional differences, cultural-historical heritage