C originally created in 1992 as the
National Security Council, but significantly revamped and strengthened
under President KUCHMA; the NSDC staff is tasked with developing national
security policy on domestic and international matters and advising the
president; a Presidential Administration that helps draft presidential
edicts and provides policy support to the president; and a Council of
Regions that serves as an advisory body created by President KUCHMA in
September 1994 that includes chairmen of the Kyyiv (Kiev) and Sevastopol'
municipalities and chairmen of the oblasti

Legislative branch: unicameral Supreme Council or Verkhovna Rada (450
seats; under Ukraine's new election law, 225 of the Supreme Council's
seats are allocated on a proportional basis to those parties that gain 4%
or more of the national electoral vote; the other 225 members are elected
by popular vote in single-mandate constituencies; all serve four-year
terms) election results: percent of vote by party - Our Ukraine 24%,
For One Ukraine 12%, CPU 20%, Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine 6%,
SPU 7%, Juliya Tymochenko Election Bloc 7%, other 24%; seats by party -
Our Ukraine 112, For One Ukraine 101, CPU 67, Social-Democratic Party
of Ukraine 24, SPU 23, Juliya Tymochenko Election Bloc 21, Democratic
Party of Ukraine 4, Unity 3, others 95 elections: last held 31 March 2002
(next to be held NA 2006)

Judicial branch: Supreme Court; Constitutional Court

Political parties and leaders: Agrarian Party [Mykhaylo HLADIY];
Communist Party of Ukraine or CPU [Petro SYMONENKO]; Democratic Union
[Oleksandr OMELCHENKO]; Fatherland (Motherland) All Ukrainian Party
[Yuliya TYMOSHENKO, chairperson]; For One Ukraine [leader NA]; Green Party
of Ukraine or PZU [Vitaliy KONONOV, chairman]; Juliya Tymochenko Election
Bloc [leader NA]; Liberal Party [Volodymyr SHCHERBAN]; Our Ukraine [leader
NA]; Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs [Anatoliy KINAKH]; Party
of Regions [Volodymyr SEMYNOZHENKO]; Party of Ukrainian Unity [Ivan
BILAS]; Peasant Party of Ukraine or SelPU [Serhiy DOVHAN]; People's
Democratic Party or PDP [Valeriy PUSTOVOYTENKO, chairman]; People's
Movement of Ukraine or Rukh U [Hennadiy UDOVENKO, chairman]; Progressive
Socialist Party [Nataliya VITRENKO]; Reforms Congress [Viktor PYNZENYK];
Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine (United) [Viktor MEDVEDCHUK]; Socialist
Party of Ukraine or SPU [Oleksandr MOROZ, chairman]; Solidarity [Petro
POROSHENKO]; Trudo