What Are The Geographic Patterns Of The 2004 Election Vote

The purpose of this essay is to explain the geographic patterns of the 2004 presidential election vote in Ukraine between Viktor Yuschenko and Viktor Yanukovych. Based on the two maps, percent of vote by region won by Viktor Yanukovych (figure 1) and percent of vote by region won by Viktor Yuschenko (figure 2) displays a great geographical divide between Ukraine’s people on which form of government they support. As shown in figure 1, the countries in the eastern half of Ukraine had the majority of votes (50% and above) in favor of Yanukovych. On the other hand, the majority of votes (50% and above) in the western states of Ukraine went in favor of Yuschenko as displayed in figure 2. One key note observed based on both figures, was somewhat of a split in voting near the central regions of Ukraine. This was evident in figure 1 in the central regions of Kirovohrad and Poltava as the percent of vote won by Yanukovych was 25-49%. A similar finding is evident in figure 2 where all of the east neighboring regions of

Poland and Russia had control of today’s Ukraine in the 17th century. The Dnieper river played a significant role in the division for east and west. In the latter half of the 17th century, Poland and Russia divvied up different areas along the river (Virág, 2012). Russia took land to the east of the Dnieper river while Poland claimed the west. This created a tremendous division as this represented two different political identities/ideals. This strong separation is evident in figures 1 and 2 as the majority of votes in favor of Yuschenko (pro-western ideals) are on the west side of Ukraine, formerly ruled by Poland. On the other hand, as evident in figure 1, the majority of votes in favor of Yanukovych (Russian ideals) are on the east side of Ukraine, formerly ruled by