Kuchma was elected president in 1994 and re-elected into the second term in 1999.
Both campaigns ended in runoffs: in 1994 he, then ex-prime minister and president of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, faced incumbent president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk. Kuchma collected over 52 percent of the vote, Kravchuk 45 percent.
In 1999 Kuchma qualified for the runoff together with Communist leader Pyotr Simonenko. Kuchma collected 56 percent of the vote, Simonenko under 38 percent. Under the Ukrainian Constitution, a president can be re-elected only once. Next presidential election is due this fall.
Leonid Kuchma has repeatedly said he was not going to run for presidency for the third time, even should the Constitution be amended.
Kuchma's presidency milestones were adopting a Constitution, rendering the country a non-nuclear status, closing the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, stabilizing relations with Russia, and stepping up cooperation with the EU and NATO.
In 1996 Ukraine has changed official currency into Hryvnia that has since then revealed best performance among post-Soviet states. Present-day Ukraine boasts the fastest economic growth in Europe.
According to RIA Novosti Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma has brought back to life the Ukrainian church, having 3,700 new churches erected in the country through the last 10 years.
Leonid Kuchma has survived seven prime ministers and a 2000-2001 "Tapegate" - alleged wire-tapping and eavesdropping among top national officials - considered so far the most dangerous political crisis during his presidency.
