In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a center of Ukraine’s heavy industry and the second most populous region with more than 3.3 million people, competition for a seat in an parliament at the upcoming Oct. 26 elections is high.
Among those running in 17 single mandate districts in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, 13 are incumbent members of the parliament, all from the Party of Regions faction, now running as self-nominated candidates.
In the ballots there are also two dozens of representatives of local legislative and executive bodies as well as managers at the biggest local enterprises owned by Ukraine’s richest people.
“Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is a tasty morsel,” said Serhiy Fedko, coordinator of Opora election watchdog in the region. “It is important for oligarchs to have their own representatives in Verkhovna Rada from the Oblast because a lot of industrial objects which bring high revenues, enormous profits are concentrated here.”
District 27
A front-runner in Zhovtneviy region of Dnipropetrovsk city, the 27th district, is Borys Filatov, a deputy governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Filatov is believed to be the man of Ihor Kolomoyskiy, governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and co-owner of Ukraine’s biggest private bank Privatbank, “1+1” TV channel, other asserts in metallurgy, oil chemistry, agriculture. Filatov does not agree with such adefinition.
“I could be called a man of Kolomoyskiy but at least I am a state official who demonstrated effective work for the last six months,” he told Kyiv Post by phone. “So do not say that I am a protégé of the oligarch. Finally, I am a member of the presidential team.”
The Bloc of Petro Poroshenko did not nominate its candidate in the 27th districts. Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front withdrew its candidate Vadym Morenets in favor of him. Batkivshchyna’s Andriy Basko submitted an application of withdrawal as well as Nataliya Demidova from the Oppositional Bloc which consists mostly of former Party of Regions members. Incumbent lawmaker from the district Oleksandr Momot from the Party of Regions is not running.
Filatov said he felt “fully optimistic” ahead of elections. However, he did not deny that his region is a scene of fight among Ukraine’s oligarchs.
“Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is an industrial center of the country and here interests of (Viktor) Pinchuk, (Rinat) Akhmetov and (Ihor) Kolomoyskiy intersect,” Filatov said. “Therefore all of them promote their own people.”
District 24
One of the top candidates in Samarskiy region of Dnipropetrovsk city, district 24, is self-nominated Yakiv Bezbakh, incumbent member of parliament from this district with the Party of Regions faction and assistant to the chairman of the board for social affairs at the Interpipe NTRP, a tube-rolling plant owned by billionaire Viktor Pinchuk, a son-in-law of Ukraine’s ex-President Leonid Kuchma. Bezhbakh won previous elections in this district with 43 percent of support. Now his chances to get to the parliament are also high. However this time the competition is tougher.
Among his rivals there are Volodymyr Ikol from Oppositional Bloc, Pavlo Krasnobrizhiy from Serhiy Tigipko’s Strong Ukraine, Andriy Kondakov from Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party and Oleksandr Shykulenko from People’s Front.
District 36
A hot race is expected in Pavlohrad district 36, where the front-runner is Artur Martovytskiy, current lawmaker and former general director at DTEK Pavlohradvuhillia, the largest coal mining company in Ukraine, a part of System Capital Management Group owned by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov. Martovytskiy won 2012 races in this district with almost 55 percent of votes as a candidate from then-ruling Party of Regions.
He did not quit the Party of Regions faction but is running as self-nominated candidate now. His main rival is Ivan Metelytsia, current mayor of Pavlohrad city, a self-nominated candidate. Oppositional Bloc candidate Yevhen Zhyvaha and Volodymyr Kuklin from Strong Ukraine withdrew their candidacies.
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast used to be a stronghold of the former ruling Party of Regions with Oleksandr Vilkul, former Akhmetov’s manager as Dnipropetrovsk Oblast governor and vice prime minister under former president Viktor Yanukovych. In 2012 elections all 17 districts were won by Party of Regions nominees or self-nominated candidates who later joined the Party of Regions faction.
At the upcoming elections, 13 of them are running again. Vilkul is running as a second number at the Oppositional Bloc party list.
In previous elections administrative leverages were used very often to defeat rivals. Now candidates use all kinds of measures to get their sit in the parliament.
“These elections in the oblast are characterized by a large number of black PR, anti-advertising, dirt on different levels,” said Stanislav Zholudiev, head of Committee of Voters of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. “There are technical problems with activity of some district commissions.”
Zholudiev said that in district 40, won by Party of Regions’ Oleh Tsariov with 45 percent of votes, former commission members locked a seal in a safe and do not want to give it to new commission members. Fedko from Opora cited several cases of indirect buy of votes.
For example, in Dnipropetrovsk district 24 earlier this month market vendors wearing vests with a name of candidate Yakiv Bezbakh sold kitchen pots and bowls on discount prices. Bezbakh’s representative called Opora and asked to withdraw this report from Opora’s web site citing a court ruling that this case was not an indirect vote buying. At the Dnipropetrovsk festival in honor of Intercession of the Holy Virgin that was supported by Borys Filatov visitors were treated by free tea and pancakes. Opora said this was also an indirect vote buying.
“May be someone handed tea and pancakes there, but I don’t follow those issues, believe me,”Filatov said. “I don’t think that I will buy my future voters for tea.”
