As part of the minority opposition in parliament prior to December 2005, he spearheaded a reform drive by his party to introduce changes to Transnistria's electoral code.

Among the changes were a requirement that purely technical qualifications be used as the basis for selecting polling station chairmen and a rule prohibiting state-owned media outlets (radio, TV, newspapers, etc.)

Shevchuk cited a controversial attempt to revise the county's constitution by president Igor Smirnov as the main reason for his resignation.

He won the first round of the presidential elections on 11 December, polling higher than either the sitting president Igor Smirnov or the Kremlin-backed Supreme Soviet chairman Anatoliy Kaminski.

348 "On the implementation of the results of the republican referendum held on 17 September 2006" in order to possibilitate a possible future annexation of Transnistria by Russia and to synchronize Transnistrian laws with Russian ones.

On 28 June 2017, the parliament of Transnistria voted to remove Shevchuk's immunity from prosecution in connection with five[12] pending criminal cases against the former President.

Shevchuk is accused of corruption, smuggling, abuse of power, misappropriation of state money in especially large amounts, as well as unreasonable delay in the payment of pensions and salaries.