Orange, blue and white, and blonde: The electoral geography of Ukraine's 2006 and 2007 Rada elections

Two American geographers specializing in the electoral geography of post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine examine the results of the two successive elections to Ukraine's national parliament, in 2006 and 2007. Their primary focus is on identifying spatial differences in voter preferences and turnout across Ukraine, and on exploring the associations between these and the historical background and social and economic conditions within Ukrainian regions. The revealed general relationships between geographic setting and voting outcomes, when applied to the study of shifts in voter turnout and party preference across regions over time, yield insights into voting patterns that may be manifest in Ukraine's next presidential election in 2010.