Voice party founder Vakarchuk surrenders MP mandate

Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, the rock star who founded the
neoliberal Voice party, told a June 11 press briefing that he is surrendering his
mandate as a member of parliament. He said he succeeded in his mission of
bringing a new faction of young professionals to parliament and will now pursue
educational projects. He expressed his disappointment with “enemies of Ukraine”
and corrupt people who are trying to smear and discredit him personally. He
said the Voice party will be able to deal with any challenges without him,
including competing in the October local elections.

Vakarchuk will remain a party member and work for the
local elections, Voice MP Inna Sovsun said in an interview that day.
“Sviatoslav always said that he is running in order to being people to
parliament. He brought new people, and that is his main accomplishment,” she
said, as reported by pravda.com.ua. She added, “With Slava in parliament or
without him, our current ratings are not optimal. We need to work towards their
improvement and convince citizens that we want to work for their interests. Our
ratings currently don’t satisfy us.”

The Voice party founded by Vakarchuk is the smallest
faction in Ukraine’s parliament with 20 MPs. Its electorate largely consists of
the young, educated residents of the pro-Western cities of Kyiv and Lviv. Many
of its MPs have Western university degrees and worked for Ukraine’s Western-financed
NGOs.

Zenon Zawada: With this
decision, Vakarchuk has permanently sealed the end to his political career. Not
only has he lost the trust of his voters by quitting, but he has shown that he
doesn’t have the thick skin and perseverance needed to maneuver the harshly
competitive jungle of Ukrainian politics.

The poll ratings of his Voice party has plummeted in
recent months to become uncompetitive (about 3.8%, according to a KIIS poll
conducted between May 24 and June 4 among 4,000 respondents). In order to
recover, Voice will need another charismatic, well-spoken leader to take center
stage, which it currently lacks. Much of its electorate has shifted its
allegiance to the European Solidarity party, which will have solid results in
the October local elections, especially at the expense of Voice.