Yevhen Marchuk on the party list, as well as reliance on the Dynamo's ranking was a mistake. Following the statement, the party's board denounced the statement of the party's leader and called for a congress to decide the fate of its leader. The October congress excluded its leader from the party. In October 1998, after Medvedchuk became leader of the party, several prominent former members of the party, led by Onopenko, established the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. In February 1999, the SDPU(o) also dismissed Marchuk, who wanted with help of the party to run for the President of Ukraine. Marchuk in turn decided to organize own Social Democratic Union before the upcoming elections. During the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election, the party supported Leonid Kuchma. The party became the first to nominated the president to run for the second term, and played a key role in his successful campaign. Shift to Russophilia During the 2002 parliamentary elections, SDPU(o) won 6.27% of the national vote and 24 seats. Late poll results in 2002 had predicted the party to win 9 to 10% of total votes. During the 2002 parliamentary election, the party promoted a Russophile agenda which would later become evocative of Medvedchuk's political views. It did considerably better in the Donbas and Crimea than 4 years earlier. By early January 2003, the SDPU(o) faction consisted of 40 seats. The SDPU(o) opposed Viktor Yushchenko's coalition of liberal and nationalist movements, and in March 2002 blamed nationalist elements linked to the pro-Yushchenko "Our Ukraine" alliance for the murder of the vice-governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, who was an SDPU(o) member. During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, SDPU(o) also took a strongly pro-Russian and anti-Western stand and backed the candidacy of Viktor Yanukovych. In the aftermath of Viktor Yushchenko's "Orange Revolution", SDPU(o) declared itself to be in opposition to the new government. Analysts stated that TV channels and other media controlled by the party, such as Inter, 1+1, and TET began a sharply anti-American and anti-NATO campaign in response to Yushchenko's pro-Western proposals. Around the time of the Orange Revolution in late 2004, more ten 10 deputies left the SDPU(o) faction in the Verkhovna Rada; by late January 2005, the faction included 27 deputies out of the Verkhovna Rada's 450 seats. Political scandals and Orange Revolution In 2001, Ukrainian historian and politician Dmytro Chobit published a book, titled Narcissus, about Medvedchuk, claiming that he was