Singers will be replaced on electoral lists by Maidan activists and participants of the ATO

Photo: Ukrainian photo

The leaders of the race launched a competition amongst themselves for the involvement of public figures in their pre-election political projects. Stakes are being placed on well-known social activists and combatants in the Donbas region.

Youth to the rescue

Yesterday, the Civil Position party held a congress at which it made a decision to unite its electoral list with the list of the Democratic Alliance party for the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada. “Based on the results of the election we shall be the third,” said Civil Position leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko, referring to the latest public opinion polls.

The two parties will run in the elections under the brand Civil Position (Anatoliy Hrytsenko), while in the majoritarian districts candidates will be nominated separately, according to their agreement. Hrytsenko topped the list and two MPs from his team – Oleh Kanivets (independent) and Leonid Makul (Batkivshchyna) – are in the upper part of the electoral list.

The 15th position was given to party member and soldier of the Aidar battalion Oleksandr Kralyuk. Among famous politicians are the former deputy head of the Presidential Administration Ihor Pukshyn and co-founder of the Third Republic initiative Taras Stetskiv. The Democratic Alliance received 2nd and 30th places in the top thirty.

“Quotas were allocated based on the parties’ ratings,” said Head of the Democratic Alliance Vasyl Hatsko in a conversation with Capital. He said the joint list will allow the party to win seats in the parliament to represent its position. Hatsko acknowledged that independent running for the VR does not guarantee that his party will hurdle the required threshold.

Political scientist Vadym Karasyov says the new political union is a marriage of convenience. “Hrytsenko added to his personal rating the Maidan fame of the Democratic Alliance and found allies among the youth, who cannot yet lead an independent game and therefore will play by his rules,” he said.

Activists in great demand

Other leaders of the election race also intend to include on their lists well-known Maidan activists, members of non-government organizations and representatives of volunteer battalions from the ATO zone. A week ago, the Batkivshchyna party published an appeal to civil activists and journalists calling to propose candidates to be included on the upper part of the electoral list.

“We look forward to cooperation with well-known social activists. We are talking about Yehor Sobolev, Tetyana Chornovol and other social activists, whose names are familiar to Ukrainians,” said MP Volodymyr Yavorivskiy (Batkivshchyna). He admits that for some of the activists the parties are engaging in a real struggle. “Parties compete for them. Society has certain mistrust to the parties and activists are of high standing,” said the MP.

Capital’s source in the government said that Tetyana Chornovol, head of the Ukrainian government’s National Anti-Corruption Committee, received an offer to join the new project named People’s Front formed for the elections by Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk and VR Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov. The commander of the volunteer battalion Donbas known as Semen Semenchenko could be one of the participants of this project.

Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party is also placing a wager on the combatants. “Combatants will make up almost a third of our list,” said member of Radical Party and a deputy of the Kyiv City Council Ihor Mosiychuk. They will be representatives of the volunteer battalions and army units that have performed well during combat in the east, said Mosiychuk. He added that the list of the Radical Party (RP) will also include Maidan activists. “Those are people who have stood in the forefront on Bankova and Hrushevskoho streets, political prisoners of Yanukovych’s regime and fighters against corruption,” he added.

Mosiychuk also noted that there will be no members of this and the previous convocations of the Verkhovna Rada on the RP’s election list with the exception of Oleh Lyashko and another former MP, whom he described as a veteran of the national liberation movement.

MP Pavlo Rozenko (UDAR) said in a conversation with Capital that his political party does not plan to invite social activists into its ranks to participate in the elections. “Our whole faction was on the Maidan from the first to the last day. Prior to getting their mandates many MPs were involved in social activities. There will be some new names on our list, but all of them are members of the UDAR team,” said Rozenko. He believes the presence of well-known public figures on electoral lists is a tribute to political fashion and the desire to attract greater attention of the voters.

“Such is the current state of affairs. In the past political parties invited popular singers and other public figures. Now they are looking for activists, be they real or imaginary combatants. The objective of this initiative is to gain more votes,” said Rozenko.

As a reminder, according to the schedule of elections, September 15 is the deadline for nomination of candidates from political parties.