SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF ELECTORAL SYMPATHIES OF THE POPULATION OF THE WESTERN UKRAINIAN REGION ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTIONS TO THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF 2019

Abstract

Problem Statement and Purpose. The study has subregional nature and is devoted to a large region of Ukraine. During the study we focused on institutional and political variables in combination with other vectors of influence. The aim of the study is to compare the results of electoral sympathies of the population of Ukraine and the Western Ukrainian region with the prevailing trends on this issue in Europe. We took into consideration the elective territories of the Western Ukrainian region (9 units in total) at the level of administrative regions in terms of constituencies to identify the relationship between voting results and a wide range of variables that determine the regional socio-economic, historical and socio-cultural context. Our spatial multi-vector study was based on the analysis of the following variables: support for the "Sluha Narodu" party, support for other parliamentary parties in the elections of 2019, distribution of votes between center-right and liberal-center parliamentary parties, support / opposition of the so-called "old" and "new" parliamentary parties during the 2019 voting, as well as a spatial analysis of voter turnout. Data & Methods. The conducted research is based on the data of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, including the data of different territorial levels of coverage (polling station - constituency - administrative region). In its course, methods of spatial analysis and differentiation, generalization and forecasting were used. Results. The results of the study showed an unconventionally low voter turnout, which is not typical for the studied region, significant fluctuations in support of the unprecedented election leader (the "Sluha Narodu" party), orientation for young parliamentary parties as a hope for change of the inner state of the country. In general, the electorate of Western Ukraine should be considered quite pragmatic due to the significant support of the parties that entered parliament. The region was marked by significantly higher support for center-right parties, which is a traditional phenome-non for this territory, and generally lower support for unusual liberal views.