1991 Ukrainian sovereignty referendum
The Ukrainian sovereignty referendum was conducted on March 17, 1991, as part of the first and only Soviet Union referendum. Throughout the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, voters were asked two questions, with an additional question attached to the ballot in the historical region of Galicia which includes the Ukrainian provinces of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Ternopil.
The referendum followed the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine by the republic's parliament on July 16, 1990. In December 1991, Ukraine held its independence referendum, where 92.3 percent of the voters approved the August 24 declaration of independence.
Republic-wide
Throughout the entire Soviet Union, citizens were first asked:
"Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any nationality will be fully guaranteed?"[1]
| Republic | For | Against | Invalid votes |
Total votes |
Registered voters |
Turnout | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
 Ukrainian SSR |
22,110,899 | 71.48 | 8,820,089 | 28.52 | 583,256 | 31,514,244 | 37,732,178 | 83.52 |
A boycott campaign reduced the against votes in Western Ukraine.[2] The Ukrainian SSR included an additional question for all of the republic's citizens; the voters were asked:
"Do you agree that Ukraine should be part of a Union of Soviet Sovereign States on the basis on the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine?"[3]
| Republic | For | Against | Invalid votes |
Total votes |
Registered voters |
Turnout | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
| Ukrainian SSR |
25,224,687 | 81.7 | 5,655,701 | 18.3 | 584,703 | 31,465,091 | 37,689,767 | 83.5 |
Provincial
- Main article: Galician referendum, 1991 on the Ukrainian Wikipedia
In the Galician provinces of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Ternopil, voters were asked an additional question:
"Would you like Ukraine became an independent state, which can independently decide all questions of domestic and foreign policy, providing equal rights to citizens regardless of nationality and religious views?"
| Provinces | For | Against |
|---|---|---|
| % | % | |
| Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Lviv Oblast, Ternopil Oblast |
88.3 | 11.7 |
References
- ^ Nohlen, D, Grotz, F & Hartmann, C (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p492 ISBN 0-19-924958-X
- ^ Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s: A Minority Faith by Andrew Wilson, Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-57457-9 (page 127)
- ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, pg. 1985 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
