People’s Servant party faces tough local elections, news site reports

The People’s Servant party, which was created for
President Zelensky’s election campaign last year, faces a tough campaign for the
local elections scheduled for Oct. 25, the pravda.com.ua news site reported on
May 12. Its biggest problems are the lack of a single, clear strategy; chaotic,
nonsystematic regional policies of the President’s Office; as well as a lack of
candidates. The work of regional administration heads has been coordinated by
President’s Office first deputy head Serhiy Trofimov, while Illia Pavliuk is
coordinating the party’s local election campaign behind the scenes. Pavliuk had
served as an aide to an influential Communist Party member in 2007-2011. The
likely official manager of the party’s local elections campaign is Oleksandr
Korniyenko, the first deputy head of the parliamentary faction.

Meanwhile, each region will be overseen by an MP to
recruit candidates for the party lists for the regional and city councils, a
process that will be partially coordinated by Serhiy Shefir, the first aide to
the president. “We need conventional ‘Mayors 2.0’. That is, these are people
with a bright experience in business or in state administration. Not some
‘sorosiata’ (Soros-backed candidates) who worked for grants, but people who
know how to work with their hands and organize a classy environment around
themselves,” said one of the influential members of the Zelensky team.

The mayorships of Ukraine’s largest cities – Kyiv,
Kharkiv and Dnipro – issued statements on May 13 calling for the renewal of
intracity public transport. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said he has asked the
cabinet for permission to reactivate the city’s metro rail as of May 25, while
Kharkiv Deputy Mayor Svitlana Horbunova-Ruban said she submitted the same
request (without a specified date), citing overcrowded on other forms of public
transport, such trolleys and minibuses. Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov made a video
announcement calling for public transport to be renewed immediately. “What
sense was there in allowing us to open markets if not everyone who needs them
can travel to them? That’s buyers, above all,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: The report
of The People’s Servant election campaign concludes by stating these local
elections could mark the end of devastating victories for Zelensky and his
party. We expect that will be the case in the absence of clear policies and
limited political achievements. Meanwhile, mayors have been scoring political
points this spring by challenging Kyiv’s severe quarantine (which is associated
with Zelensky). The May 13 calls for reopening metro rail and public transport
were merely the latest attempts at scoring points with voters, particularly
pensioners without vehicles.

It’s already clear The People’s Servant is unlikely to
win the mayorships of Ukraine’s largest cities, including Kyiv (Vitali
Klitschko likely to be re-elected), Kharkiv (Hennadiy Kernes likely to be
re-elected), and Dnipro (Borys Filatov likely to be re-elected). A campaign can
be mounted to overtake Odesa, which is led by the notoriously corrupt Gennady
Trukhanov, but The People’s Servant has yet to recruit a viable challenger.

As for council voting, we see strong results for
Ukraine’s leading pro-Russian party (the Opposition Platform For Life led by
former Deputy PM Yuriy Boyko), the leading pro-Western party European
Solidarity (led by former President Poroshenko) and the Fatherland party led by
former PM Tymoshenko, who most vocally opposed the farmland market. The
ineffective People’s Servant party will gain decent results in many councils
(owing to Zelensky’s celebrity), but will often fail to finish in first.