Vakarchuk confirms he won’t compete for presidency

Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, the rock star who recently
studied at U.S. universities, confirmed in a Jan. 27 Facebook post that he will
not compete as a candidate for the presidency. He hinted he might compete in
the parliamentary elections in October. “Together with my team, I will work for
the victory of pro-European forces,” he wrote. “I will work to bring to
government as many young professionals as possible. People of the future. Those
for whom justice and the state interest are the most important.”

Vakarchuk met with Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko in late December to discuss his potential presidential run, the
pravda.com.ua news site reported on Jan. 28. (The alleged meeting was denied by
Vakarchuk’s press service, the report said.) In exchange for withdrawing his
candidacy, Poroshenko allegedly agreed to two key political demands, according
to MP Serhiy Leshchenko. They are launching the independent anti-corruption
court ahead of the elections, which the president promised to do last week, and
amending the election law to hold the October parliamentary vote based on open
lists of candidates (as opposed to the closed lists currently in which
candidates are selected by parties).

Zenon Zawada: Vakarchuk
had a chance to legitimately compete for the presidency had he approached the
campaign more seriously. But by the first week of January (when the campaign
season officially began), he lost much of the momentum he would have had by
stalling on an announcement. It’s entirely possible he traded his electoral
capital in exchange for concessions from the president. Time will tell whether
he truly struck a deal with the president for open-list voting in October,
which would be very positive for Ukrainian politics. We believe Vakarchuk is
also capable of gaining a modest parliamentary faction (earning between 5-8% of
the vote), which will also be positive for Ukraine.