Oleksandr Omelchenko
Encyclopedia
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Omelchenko ( Oleksandr Oleksandrovyč Omel'čenko) became the mayor of
Mayor of Kiev
Mayor of Kiev is the elected mayor of the municipality of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, who is also normally automatically appointed as Head of the City's State Administration and Chair of the City Council....

 Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, the capital of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, in 1999. He lost his re-election bid in March 2006. Omelchenko is now member of the Verkhovna Rada
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...

 (Ukrainian parliament) elected on behalf of Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc but expelled from that fraction in September 2011. However he voluntary left the faction the next month. Omelchenko son Oleksandr was also a member of the Verkhovna Rada on an Our Ukraine ticket from 2002
Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002
Ukrainian parliamentary election of 2002 took place on March 31. Half of the deputies to Verkhovna Rada were elected on proportional basis, while the other half were elected by popular vote in single-mandate constituencies...

 till 2007
Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2007
Early parliamentary elections in Ukraine took place on 30 September 2007. The date of the election was determined following agreement between the President Viktor Yushchenko, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Moroz on 27 May 2007, in an attempt...

.

Omelchenko is the President of both the Association of the Cities of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Hockey Federation.

Political career

During the 1999 Kiev mayoral election, Omelchenko defeated a noted oligarch
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...

 Hryhoriy Surkis
Hryhoriy Surkis
Hryhoriy Surkis is a Ukrainian businessman and politician. Surkis is the president of Football Federation of Ukraine....

, with 76 percent of the vote to Surkis's 16 percent. Omelchenko became the first elected mayor in Ukraine's modern history, with a platform highlighting his work in restoring much of Kiev's historic buildings and renovating parts of downtown Kiev.

Omelchenko was a candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election
Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
The Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 was held on October 31, November 21 and December 26, 2004. The election was the fourth presidential election to take place in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union...

, nominated by the Unity Party
Unity (Ukraine)
Unity is a political party in Ukraine created in 1999 in protest of the then politics. The party was led by the former mayor of Kiev Oleksandr Omelchenko but in early 2008 he temporally halted his party membership and is now a member of Our Ukraine-Peoples Self Defence.-Ukrainian parliamentary...

, which he formerly chaired. Omelchenko was the only candidate for President whose son was a deputy in the Ukrainian parliament
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...

. His program included the urgent withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. After the Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...

, Omelchenko joined the People's Union "Our Ukraine" party but did not disband his old party.

While he was running for a third term as Mayor of Kiev in what was expected to be an easy victory in the March 2006 election, he was badly defeated and came third behind Leonid Chernovetsky (mayor-elect) and Vitali Klitschko
Vitali Klitschko
Vitaliy Volodymyrovych Klychko is a Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and the current WBC heavyweight champion. He is a leader of the political party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform and a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Congress of the Council of Europe. He previously...

.

During the 2007 parliamentary elections
Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2007
Early parliamentary elections in Ukraine took place on 30 September 2007. The date of the election was determined following agreement between the President Viktor Yushchenko, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Moroz on 27 May 2007, in an attempt...

 Omelchenko was elected as a Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc deputy to the Verkhovna Rada
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...

. He was expelled from that fraction in September 2011 because of supporting the Azarov Government
Azarov Government
The first Azarov Government was appointed on March 11, 2010 as part of the "Stability and Reform" coalition between the Party of Regions, Lytvyn Bloc and the Communist Party of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament...

.

External links

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