Ukraine parliament schedules vote for Kryviy Rih mayor in March

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted on Dec. 23 to suspend the authority of Yuriy Vilkul, the mayor-elected of Kryviy Rih, and scheduled new mayoral elections for March 27. The measure was supported by 236 MPs and was led by the youth-oriented Self-Reliance party, whose candidate, Yuriy Miloboh, lost in Kryviy Rih by a margin of 752 votes. Since the elections in late October, the party held protests and legal battles to overturn the results, which Self-Reliance alleged were fraudulent. Once part of the Soviet Communist establishment, Vilkul was elected mayor in 2010 from the Russian-oriented Party of Regions, now the Opposition Bloc.

Kryviy Rih is Europe’s longest city geographically and Ukraine’s eighth-largest city by population at 650,000. Among its industry is Ukraine’s biggest steel plant, ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih, and most of Ukraine’s iron ore enrichment plants, which are controlled by Rinat Akhmetov and other oligarchs. Hence, Vilkul’s strong grip on power, despite his alleged corrupion.

Zenon Zawada: Yesterday’s parliamentary vote marks a big victory for the Self-Reliance party, which was born in western Ukraine but is attracting the youth electorate in eastern Ukraine’s industrial cities, once heavily Russian-oriented. Given its strategic importance, Kryviy Rih will be under an international microscope for the March vote and Miloboh is likely to emerge the victor, reflecting how the young generation of eastern Ukraine is increasingly preferring Western values, instead of what Russia has to offer. The success of the campaign to call new elections has lifted its leader, the 38-year-old Yegor Sobolev, who is the deputy head of the Self-Reliance parliamentary faction, to the center stage as a leading crusader for reform, alongside Mikheil Saakashvili.