Where: Prymorskiy region of Odesa
District: 135
Polling stations: 98
Number of voters: 180,297
Number of candidates: 47
After canceling its traditional humor fest on April 1 because of Ukraine’s endless tragedies, the Black Sea port city of Odesa is finally set to have some excitement again during the Oct. 26 parliamentary election.
Nowhere is this more evident, perhaps, than in district 135, where the list of nearly 50 registered candidates includes one named after Star Wars villain Darth Vader, and another after computer game hero Super Mario.
Most of the main political parties have registered their candidates in this district that might be the hottest in Odesa.
But critics say few people with clean reputations are running.
Serhiy Kivalov
The front-runner is Serhiy Kivalov, 60, a veteran politician formerly from the former ruling Party of Regions. He has been in parliament since 1998 and headed the Central Election Commission during the rigging of the 2004 presidential race that led to the Orange Revolution, keeping Viktor Yanukovych out of power that year in favor of Viktor Yushchenko.
Politicians came and went in the last decade, while another revolution happened. But Kivalov, who has been heading the local Legal Academy for years, remains in the game. Although he was questioned by the General Prosecutor’s Office in election-fraud cases, he never faced any criminal charges.
In fact, when former President Yushchenko was in office, Kivalov received an award for “significant contribution to the implementation of the constitutional electoral rights of citizens of Ukraine.”
In his comments to the Ukrainian media about the award, Kivalov said that he signed the decree proclaiming Yanukovych’s victory in the 2004 presidential election to save the nation from a long-lasting civil confrontation. He said this official document then became basis for a future legal dispute, and allowed to solve the conflict in a civilized way, though a revote on Dec. 26, 2004, that Yushchenko won.
Kivalov is a co-author of the controversial law on languages approved in 2012, which was supposed to guarantee development of minority languages in Ukraine but was really meant to promote Russian. The law sparked protests and even hunger strikes. Just months later, Kivalov and the other co-author of the bill, Vadym Kolesnichenko, were awarded the Alexander Pushkin medal by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kivalov was among those deputies who voted for the so-called “dictatorship laws” on Jan. 16, about a month before Yanukovych fled power. That set of laws was Yanukovych’s attempt to restrict freedom of speech and assembly. It led to a public backlash and the first major violence and deaths during the EuroMaidan Revolution last winter.
Kivalov failed to show up in parliament on Feb. 20 for a vote to condemn violence against peaceful citizens. He also failed to take part in next day’s session after the escape of Yanukovych to Russia.
Kivalov left the Party of Regions faction last summer and is running for parliament as a self-nominated candidate. On Sept. 21, he initiated a march for peace in downtown Odesa that was attended by several thousand citizens wearing vyshyvankas,(traditional embroidered shirts) and waving Ukrainian flags.
“We support the initiative of Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko to stop military actions on Ukraine’s territory,” his official website quoted him as saying at the rally. “Today, unfortunately, we know what a war is. War is devastation, war is grief. At today’s march, we show the striving for peace and prosperity in Ukraine. ”
Bringing back peace and stability in Ukraine and preventing riots and war in Odesa are Kivalov’s main aims, according to his electotal program. He wants an investigation into the May 2 tragedy in Odesa that killed 48 people – most of them in the city’s trade union building – in clashes started by pro-Russian separatists. Kivalov also supports vaguely defined social guarantees for citizens who suffered from war, restoration of the maritime potential of Ukraine and Odesa as its port number one.
Viktor Naumchak
One of Kivalov’s rivals in this election is Viktor Naumchak, 42, an Odesa City Council member and a businessman nominated by the presidential bloc. Naumchak is the founder and director of ODETEKS company that produces textiles and fiber for different industries.
Naumchak joined the Odesa City Council in 2010 in the faction of the then-ruling Party of Regions under Yanukovych. But after the mass sniper shootings during the EuroMaidan Revolution, he quit the faction. In his statement to the citizens of Odesa, he said that he “felt cheated, the same as many of us who believed the election program (of the Party of Regions) about ‘improvement’ and European integration. I have never concealed my views and believe that the place of Ukraine is in the family of free European nations without any conditions and delays.”
He joined Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc ahead of the upcoming election, and was nominated from this party. Naumchak’s biography also says that he received his second higher education at the Odesa Legal Academy headed by his rival Kivalov.
Naumchak wants to bring the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula back under Ukraine’s control. He wants to diversify gas shipments and provide energy independence of Ukraine. In his program there are such phrases as lustration of all branches of power, a “reload” of power, public control of the authorities, decentralization, a transparent media ownership structure and free usage of the native language.
Other candidates
Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front nominated 28-year-old Yehor Prokopchuk in this district. But on Oct. 13 the party withdrew its candidate to prevent re-election of Kivalov and supported Naumchak from Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc.
Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party nominated Olha Manokhina, 56. Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party nominated 26-year-old Yulia Bets. Volia Pary, a young post-Maidan startup, nominated Mark Hordiyenko, 46. The Oppositional Bloc – consisting mainly of former ruling Party of Regions members — delegated 30-year-old Bohdan Hihanov. Sergiy Tigipko’s Strong Ukraine did not nominate any candidate.
Among self-nominated candidates in this district are Odesa City Council member Heorhiy Selianin, 45, and a local businessman with controversial reputation, Volodymyr Rondin, 47.
The Internet Party of Ukraine nominated a candidate called Darth Vader who makes public appearances dressed as a Star Wars movie character to the theme music. The man actually had to officially change his name to register.
Another bright character in this district is showman Oleksiy Durnev, 28, who handed a carrot to Yatsenyuk, whose nickname is Rabbit. Trying to mock traditional pre-election promises which never come true, Durnev promised in his Twitter to pay 500 euros per month to every beautiful woman if he is elected. Recently he held a joint press conference with other colorful characters, including Spiderman, Wolverine and his rival in 135th district, Oleksandr Baraboshko, 24, who came wearing a costume of computer game hero Super Mario.
Photo by timer.od.ua
Baraboshko is better known by his blogging name Krus Krus. He streamed the EuroMaidan Revolution live from Kyiv along with other people.
Competition in the 135th constituency is much tougher than the national average, but there are signs that Kivalov’s luck may be starting to run out.
On Sept. 19, a so-called Kivalov statue was overturned and broken to pieces in Odesa. Officially just a statue of a lawyer in front of a private university, it bore a strong resemblance to Kivalov who co-founded the university, and was frequently referred to by his name. The monument stood untouched for seven years until last month, local newspaperdumskaya.net reported.
