First-past-the-post deputies are seeking a way to sell their votes for a higher price

Ihor Yeremeyv is again ready to build up a team of deputies in his inner circle that support the current president

Photo: Ivan Chernichkin

The Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) and the People’s Front (PF) began actively working with first-past-the-post deputies to draw them into their circle in order reinforce their positions in talks regarding the forming of a coalition. According to information that Capital possesses, the teams of Poroshenko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk are not only proposing deputies to joint their team, but are also fostering the formation of amicable deputy groups.

Touchstone

The newly elected members to the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation are holding talks on forming a parliamentary group from the composite of the winners of the elections in first-past-the-post constituencies, spokesman for the Right Sector party Boryslav Bereza told Capital. “A union is being created on the positions of statehood and the revival of Ukraine, which will strictly control the actions of the president and the government. Both self-nominated and first-past-the-post candidates from different parties and blocs will join this union. Purely on principle, not a single deputy of the previous convocation will be accepted as a member of this union,” Bereza emphasized.

Bereza predicted that 22 individuals will become members of the deputy group. “I would really like to see Borys Filatov (Deputy Chair of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration – Capital] and battalion commanders become members of the group,” spokesman for the Right Sector said, clarifying that so far the faction does not have any intentions of joining the pro-government coalition. Filatov himself did not reply to a question posed by the publication regarding his participation in the future union.

People’s deputy Andriy Ilyenko (Svoboda), who won in a first-past-the-post district in Kyiv, assured Capital that he did not receive an invitation to join the group. “Seven members of Svoboda plant to create their own informal union. We are also ready for talks on joining such a patriotic group,” he stressed.

However, Pavlo Rozenko, who was elected to the VR on the BBP list, doubts that members of the Right Sector will succeed in attracting members to its faction. “I think this will be an informal group composed of no more than 15 deputies,” Rozenko presumes.

President’s reply

A source in the inner circles of the authorized representative of Ihor Yeremeyev’s deputy group Sovereign European Ukraine told Capital that today the creation of yet another union in the future parliament is in the works. He noted that 14 deputies of the previous composite of the group were voted into the VR. “Talks are currently being held with first-past-the-post deputies who are willing to join the union. I presume there will be just as many deputies in our group than there were in the previous parliament in which we had 35 seats,” Yeremeyev said.

Member of the group Yuriy Blahodyr indirectly confirmed this information for the publication. “Deputies joining the group expressed their desire to work together in the new parliament. There is a story of relations and I hope that the group will survive and grow,” said Blahodyr, who himself did not run in the last elections.

According to predictions of political analyst Taras Berezovets, such a group could potentially count on a membership of 80 deputies. Moreover, the expert believes that the former head of the Presidential Secretariat Viktor Baloha, who won a set in the Verkhovna Rada as a self-nominee, will help Yeremeyev. “This will be a deputy group or faction that is loyal to the current president,” Berezovets told Capital.

Several deputy groups that will vote according to the situation will be formed in the new parliament,” Rozenko predicted. “They will demand privileges from the government and there will be a formidable number of independent deputies,” he presumes.

“At the moment, the main competition for first-past-the-post deputies is between the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the People’s Front. For this reason, many parliamentarians will wait until the price is right and are not giving concrete answers regarding cooperation,” a source in the Presidential Administration told Capital. He said Head of the PA Borys Lozhkin and Chair of the BBP Election Headquarters Vitaliy Kovalchuk are holding talks with deputies on behalf of the president. “They are not rivals. They are merely filling in for one another. Everyone has their own deputies,” the source confirmed.

Bereza said that the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the People’s Front are actively competing for the support of first-past-the-post candidates. He added, “Money is being offered through different mechanisms.”