Ukraine key reformers join Democratic Alliance party

Several key reformers in the Ukrainian parliament – MPs Serhiy Leshchenko, Svitlana Zalishchuk, and Mustafa Nayyem of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc – participated in the Democratic Alliance party congress on July 9 and formally joined its board of directors. Zalishchuk was elected temporary party co-chair with Vasyl Gatsko, the party’s leader for numerous years.

Zenon Zawada: Democratic Alliance is among an entire crowd of EU-oriented liberal, reform parties on the Ukrainian political scene, all of which are pretty much equal in that they have little funding and don’t have enough votes to qualify for parliament. Besides the Self-Reliance party (which is represented in parliament), there’s the Civic Position party led by former Defense Minister Anatoliy Grytsenko, the Volia Party led by MP Yuriy Derevianko, and a project that will involve former deputy prosecutors Vitaliy Kasko and David Sakvarelidze, among others.

We see the threat that all these parties will splinter the pro-EU, liberal vote at the next parliamentary elections, which could come as early as next year. They will need to unite into a single party, or block of parties, in order to be effective and have influence in parliament.