Balazs Jarabik: Democracy and disorientation in Ukraine’s local elections
Ukrainians will go to the polls on October 25 to choose their mayors and local council deputies. The vote will take place throughout the country, with the exception of Russian-occupied Crimea, rebel-controlled Donbas, and a handful of municipalities adjacent to the conflict zone where Kyiv has deemed it unsafe to hold elections.
These elections will be important as the first gauge of the government’s performance since the parliamentary elections of October 2014, and will empower a new cohort of local politicians who will be responsible for the implementation of the decentralization reforms currently being debated in the Rada.
The results will also likely determine the next moves for the ruling coalition, namely whether President Petro Poroshenko will feel the need to reshuffle the government or schedule another parliamentary election.