3 October 2014
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a meeting of German businessmen on Oct. 2 that she hopes the Ukrainian government will finally undertake economic reforms, reduce corruption and restrict the influence of oligarchs after the October parliamentary elections, the Interfax news agency reported.
Among those competing in the Oct. 26 early parliamentary elections are 127 out of the 235 MPs who voted on Jan. 16 to support the creation of a dictatorship in Ukraine, reported on Oct. 2 the Chesno non-governmental parliamentary monitoring organization. 39 of them are competing on party lists and 88 in single-mandate districts (half of the parliament’s seats will be determined by closed party lists and the other half by single-mandate, single-winner districts). Most of these candidates are competing to represent pro-Russian parties or single-mandate districts in the southeastern regions. 302 of the current 450 MPs are competing to return to parliament, the Opora election monitoring organization reported on Oct. 2. Forty-two of them have joined the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.
Zenon Zawada: We expect at least half of the current MPs to return to parliament. We also expect many of those in the current Cabinet will return to parliament. They’ll be an improvement from the last parliament, but their performance so far indicates they’re not ready to pursue the tectonic reforms that are needed.
As for restricting the influence of oligarchs, the current leaders of the government are themselves oligarchs (President Petro Poroshenko) or deeply entrenched in the oligarch clan structure (Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Parliamentary Head Oleksandr Turchynov).
Therefore, the hope for reforms lies not in whatever parliament and Cabinet that emerge from these elections, but in the ability of activists and civic organizations to pressure the government for the needed reforms. They have demonstrated effectiveness, so far. One example is its campaign to pressure parliament to approve the lustration law in September (through protests that included the ominous burning of tires).