page_title: Opposition Bloc
section_title: 2014 parliamentary elections
hierarchical_section_title: Opposition Bloc / History / 2014 parliamentary elections
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Вибори до Верховної Ради України. Кількість набраних голосів партією "Опозиційний блок" у відсотках за округами.
context_page_description: Opposition Bloc was a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party that was founded in 2014 by the merger of six parties that did not endorse Euromaidan. Legally, the party was created by renaming the lesser-known party Leading force. The party was perceived as the successor of the disbanded Party of Regions.
  In the 2014 election, the party won 29 seats predominantly in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk and Kharkiv oblasts.
  American lobbyist Paul Manafort acted as political consultant for the party.
  By January 2019 two wings of the party nominated two different candidates for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. Yuriy Boyko for the Opposition Platform — For Life alliance and Oleksandr Vilkul for Opposition Bloc — Party of Peace and Development. Both these two offsprings of Opposition Bloc took part independently of each other in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, with the Opposition Bloc — Party of Peace and Development named into Opposition Bloc.
context_section_description: In September 2014 American lobbyist Paul Manafort was hired as an advisor to (former Manafort client) Viktor Yanukovych’s former head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Serhiy Lyovochkin.  Manafort was tasked with rebranding Party of Regions. Instead, he argued to help stabilize Ukraine, Manafort advised to create a new political party called Opposition Bloc. According to Ukrainian political analyst Mikhail Pogrebinsky “He thought to gather the largest number of people opposed to the current government, you needed to avoid anything concrete, and just become a symbol of being opposed".
  It was planned that the biggest party in the previous 2012 parliamentary elections, Party of Regions, would be part of the Opposition Bloc in the 2014 parliamentary elections. This alliance was to be led by Serhiy Tihipko. But he refused to do so because in his opinion in this alliance there were "people tainted by corruption and to put it mildly, unpatriotic". Tihipko then became leader of (the revived) Strong Ukraine.
  On 14 September 2014, the Party of Regions choose not to participate in the elections; it deemed the election lacking legitimacy because the residents of the Donbass could not vote in the election. Also on 14 September 2014, a forum took place in Kiev with the banner "Peace. Stability. Revival", at the end of which Party of Development of Ukraine, Center All-Ukrainian Union, Ukraine – Forward!, Labour Ukraine, New Politic and "State neutrality" decided to take part in the 2014 parliamentary elections as Opposition Bloc. Many individual members of Party of Regions ended up as candidates of Opposition Bloc. Among them Yuriy Boyko, who headed the party's election list. Other main figures on this election list are Natalia Korolevska, Mykhailo Dobkin and Vadim Rabinovich. In September 2014 Boyko argued that Opposition Bloc does not represent parties, but consisted only of individual politicians. Boyko, Dobkin and Rabinovich all took part in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election. In which they scored 0.19%, 3.03% and 2.25%. Korolevska and Boyko were both ministers in the second Azarov Government. Serhiy Lyovochkin was also a candidate of the party. Five members of Party of Regions were in the top 10 of the Opposition Bloc's electoral list.
  The party won 29 seats; including the winning of 2 constituency seats. It won 2 constituency seats but for the nationwide party lists of the election (53.2% of the seats was elected by a nationwide party lists and 46.8% in 198 constituencies) the party gained most votes in all 14 constituencies in Kharkiv Oblast, all 6 constituencies in Luhansk Oblast (were voting was possible), 8 out of 9 in Zaporizhia Oblast (Petro Poroshenko Bloc winning the remaining constituency), in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 10 out of 17 constituencies (Petro Poroshenko Bloc winning the remaining constituency), in Donetsk Oblast (were voting was possible) 6 out of 11 constituencies (Petro Poroshenko Bloc winning the remaining 5 constituencies). In Odessa Oblast 27 October preliminary result indicated that Petro Poroshenko Bloc had won 7 constituencies with the remaining 4 constituencies won by Opposition Bloc. In Mykolaiv Oblast Petro Poroshenko Bloc seemed to be the clear winner with winning 5 constituencies while the remaining constituency won by Opposition Bloc.
  On 27 November 2014 an Opposition Bloc parliamentary faction of 40 people was formed (at the opening session of the new parliament).
  The party was one of the winners of the 2015 Ukrainian local elections gaining nationwide 11.5%. It gained most (of all) votes South and East Ukraine (except of Kharkiv Oblast).
  In May 2016 Rabinovich left the party and its parliamentary faction after a request from his party Center All-Ukrainian Union.
caption: Opposition Bloc support (% of the votes cast) by district
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