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Ukraine’s head of state is the President, elected by universal ballot for a five-year term. According to the Constitution the President is 'the guarantor of state sovereignty and territorial indivisibility of Ukraine, the observance of the Constitution of Ukraine and human and citizens’ rights and freedoms' and commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces. The President has a range of powers, including the right to veto legislation passed by Parliament, apart from amendments to the Constitution (though Parliament can subsequently override such a veto by a two-thirds vote). The constitutional reform of December 2004, however, shifted the balance of power away from the President towards Parliament.
The
first presidential election following Ukraine’s declaration of independence took
place on 1 December 1991, simultaneously with the referendum held to confirm the
independence declaration, and was won by Leonid Kravchuk. In the following
election in June 1994 Kravchuk was defeated by Leonid Kuchma, who was
subsequently elected for a second term in November 1999.
The current President is Viktor Yushchenko who was elected in December 2004 following the 'Orange Revolution', in which hundreds of thousands of people came out onto the streets of Kyiv and other cities to protest against fraudulent practices perpetrated by the authorities in the initial stages of the election.