SDPU led by Onopenko, and in March 1996 re-registered Buzduhan's faction as the SDPU. In April 1996, Onopenko's organization conducted an extraordinary party congress, where it was decided to change the party's name by adding the word "(united)". In 1996, the party was joined by Surkis and the owners of the Inter television channel, Oleksandr Zinchenko with Ihor Pluzhnikov. By 1998, the leadership of the party had shifted to Medvechuk, Surkis, and Kravchuk. During the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, the party portrayed itself as a centrist, social-democratic moderate political force that advocated for Ukrainian accession to the European Union and supported Kuchma. The party was closely linked to the presidential administration and big business in Kyiv. According to Ukrainian newspaper Halytski Kontrakty, in 1998 the Cabinet of Ukraine transferred under administration to the Ukrainian Credit Bank a share stock package of the Zaporizhia Factory of Ferroalloys, as well as number of regional power distributors such as Kirovohrad Power Distribution Company, Ternopil Power Distribution Company, and Kherson Power Distribution Company. The leaders of the SDPU(o) denied any relations to the energy distribution business, and Medvedchuk particularly called it "child's talk" (). However, according to the Siberian newspaper Negotsiant, the representative of energy interests for the social democrats was Russian businessman Konstantin Grigorishin, who held a place on supervisory boards in several Ukrainian companies, among them Dniprospetsstal, the Zaporizhia Factory of Ferroalloys, Sumy Power Distribution Company, and many others. According to Prometall Ukrainian Informational Agency, Grigorishin, along with his partners Levon and Aleksandr Vardanyan, was one of the governors of the Court Holding Investment Pool Company that owned a number of controlling share packages for several power distribution companies. Grigorishin was also the owner of Sozidanie, which owned number of strategically-important Ukrainian companies, among them the Sumy Engineering Association. At the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the SDPU(o) won 4.01% of the vote, primarily in the party's traditional stronghold of Zakarpattia Oblast. During the 1998 parliamentary election, the party ran on a moderate Ukrainian nationalist ideology. The party list was significantly shaken up in this election, with political newcomer Petro Poroshenko placed near the top ten, and original members Andriy Nosenko and Yuriy Zbitnyev placed below of the top 20. Out of total of 178 names on the party list, only the upper 14 made it to the Verkhovna Rada. Soon after elections in April 1998, Onopenko stated that inclusion of Kravchuk and