the Verkhovna Rada to adopt on 28 June the new Constitution that includes many positions close to the demands of left-wing parties. After signing the treaty of "Kanev Four" in 1999, he became an acknowledged leader of the non-Communist opposition to Kuchma. At a 2001 sitting of the Verkhovna Rada, Moroz made public Mykola Melnychenko’s tapes that alleged the involvement of the leaders of Ukraine, including Kuchma, in the murder of famous independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze that provoked the political crisis in Ukraine known as the Cassette Scandal. Moroz was a member of a special board "Forum of national salvation", a representative of a Public Committee of Protection of the Constitution "Ukraine without Kuchma" and later "Rise, Ukraine!" in charge of negotiations with representatives of the regime. Following the 2002 parliamentary election, the Socialist Party (which included Yuriy Lutsenko, Josef Vinski, Mykola Rudkovski and Valentyna Semenyuk) was the fourth-largest party in the Verkhovna Rada. The Socialists joined the "Oppositional Four", a group of parties that also included Our Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc and the Communist Party of Ukraine. Orange Revolution and election defeat In the 2004 presidential election, Moroz was nominated by the Socialist Party which he has chaired since 1991. He won third place with 5.81% of the vote. As a long-time leader of anti-Kuchma forces, Moroz quickly announced his support for Viktor Yushchenko's presidential bid against Kuchma's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, thus making Yushchenko the favourite to win in round two. That Yushchenko did not win despite this endorsement was used to argue that there was election fraud in the run-off. Moroz supported the subsequent Orange Revolution, the mass protests that eventually led to the annulment of the vote results and to a revote won by Yushchenko. The support of the Socialist Party he brought to Yushchenko's campaign was important to widen Yushchenko's appeal to voters. Similarly, the votes of Moroz's Socialist Party faction in the Verkhovna Rada were crucial for passing several important resolutions during the Orange Revolution, particularly the non-confidence vote in the Kuchma–Yanukovych government involved in election fraud scandal. After the 2006 parliamentary election, Moroz was elected the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 6 July 2006 (238 ayes, 226 needed for election) with support of the Party of Regions, the Socialist Party and Communist factions. The Socialist Party of Ukraine received 2.86% of the national vote in the 2007 parliamentary election,