Four parties dominate Ukrainian political landscape, poll says

Four parties
continue to dominate the Ukrainian political landscape, according to the latest
poll for the parliamentary vote released on June 30. About 30.3% of those who
intend to vote would cast their ballot for the pro-presidential party The
People’s Servant, 21.8% for the pro-Putin Opposition Platform For Life party,
15.7% for the pro-NATO European Solidarity party and 8.5% for the anti-IMF
Fatherland party. No other party crosses the 5% threshold. The poll was
conducted by the Western-sponsored Razumkov Center between June 17 and 24.

In Odesa, Ukraine’s
third-largest city, the scandalous mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov is likely to be
re-elected, according to a poll conducted by the Rating Sociological Group that
it published on June 17. About 48.7% of local residents who plan to vote said
they will cast their ballot for Trukhanov, who was alleged by the BBC news
service to have been among the leaders of a murderous
international criminal gang, enabling him to earn enough capital to get involved in
politics in the early 2000s. He faces criminal
charges of price gauging that cost the city budget UAH 92.7 mln during his time as
mayor.

The poll’s runner up
is Mikheil Saakashvili, who would earn 13.7% of votes after making a splash as
the Odesa regional administration head in May 2015-November 2016. Saakashvili
currently leads the National Reforms Council and has not expressed his
intention to run for Odesa mayor.

Dnipro Mayor Borys
Filatov announced on June 19 the launch of a new party, ProPozystiya, that will
unite several incumbents seeking re-election, including the mayors of
Mykolayiv, Chernivtsi, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytskiy. Local budgets during the
quarantine and economic crisis have prompted the creation of “a truly powerful
professional force of people who understand concrete problems in their positions,
know how to resolve them and have political levers of influence to press and
defend the rights of citizens to self-governance,” a spokeswoman said at the
June 19 presentation.

Zenon Zawada: Several
things are already foreseeable about the October local elections. (1) The four
leading parties will dominate the voting for councils, though People’s Servant
is at greatest risk of losing support by then. (2) The competition will be
fierce between the parties, especially with the land market to be launched. (3)
The mayors of Ukraine’s largest cities – Klitschko in Kyiv, Kernes in Kharkiv,
Trukhanov in Odesa and Filatov in Dnipro – will likely be re-elected. (4) Many
other mayors will be re-elected, particularly those with the ProPozytsiya
party, withstanding challenges from People’s Servant candidates.