District 94 in Kyiv Oblast is proving to be one of the most hotly contested and controversial districts in the upcoming July 21 parliamentary election.
The two stars among the candidates are Igor Kononenko, an ex-member of former President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc and his right-hand man, and 1+1 television journalist Oleksandr Dubinsky from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party — a fierce critic of Poroshenko.
Both are controversial: Kononenko faces numerous accusations of corruption, which he denies, and Dubinsky is known for his questionable journalistic standards.
Kononenko, whose influence has waned since Poroshenko’s loss in the April 21 presidential election, is fighting for his political survival.
The district, on the southern outskirts of the capital, which includes the towns of Vasylkiv and Obukhiv, is also rife with accusations of vote-buying and vote-rigging and features several “clones” of the leading candidates with identical names.
“This is an absurd circus,” political consultant Oleksiy Kovzhun told the Kyiv Post. “It’s Ukraine’s most controversial district where — as if in a magnifying glass or in a Petri dish — the horrors of the past are visible.”
‘Absurd circus’
The number of parliamentary candidates in the district is the second highest in Ukraine — 42.
There are several candidate clones with names identical to those of the two leading candidates — a move likely intended to take votes away from them. Specifically, there are three Dubinskys, three Kononenkos and one Kononko. Another Dubinsky initially ran, but Oleksandr Dubinsky from Servant of the People said he had persuaded him to withdraw his candidacy.
There are also several candidates apparently trying to piggyback on Servant of the People’s popularity.
Yuriy Sabashchuk and Jean Novoseltsev represent two nongovernmental organizations called the Servant of the People, which are not linked to the Servant of the People party. There is also Pavlo Holoborodko, who has the same last name as Zelensky’s fictional and idealistic Ukrainian president in his Servant of the People TV series.
Meanwhile, Novoseltsev, Yevheny Kuksin and Oleh Deineka are Dubinsky’s former colleagues on the 1+1 channel.
Other candidates include Larysa Ilyenko from ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party and Anna Oksanichenko from rock star Svyatoslav Vakarchuk’s Golos (Voice) Party.
Igor Mosiychuk, a former lawmaker from populist Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party, withdrew his candidacy in favor of Dubinsky on July 18. He claimed that Kononenko associates had invited him to run in the district to obstruct Dubinsky’s campaign and discredit him and offered him a bribe. Dubinsky published an audio of what he says is a conversation between Mosiychuk and Kononenko’s associates.
“I don’t see a point in commenting on the actions and statements of a well-known corrupt politician who’s not in jail for a proven crime only because the Verkhovna Rada violated its regulations,” Kononenko told the Kyiv Post.
In 2015 Mosychuk was arrested during a Verkhovna Rada meeting after the Prosecutor General’s Office played video footage allegedly showing him discussing bribes. He denied the accusations, and later the courts canceled his arrest due to procedural violations and gave him his immunity from prosecution back.
Dubinsky is expected to get 34.7-percent support, while Kononenko and Ilyenko are expected to get less than 7 percent each, according to a poll by Active Group taken in June. More recent polls were not available.
Dmytro Razumkov (L), head of the Servant of the People party, and Oleksandr Dubinsky, a TV journalist and a candidate running for parliament with the Servant of the People in Kyiv Oblast, sit at a press conference in Kyiv on July 3, 2019. (UNIAN)
Voting fraud?
Meanwhile, the police on July 15 opened a criminal case into alleged vote-buying by Kononenko in the district. Some residents of the district claimed that they had been offered Hr 2,000 ($77) to vote for Kononenko, who denied the allegations.
In the run-up to the March 31 first round of the presidential election, the police also investigated an alleged vote buying scheme in favor of Poroshenko in the same district. Kononenko was accused by his critics of being behind the scheme and denies the accusations.
In April, the police charged Volodymyr Sabadash, mayor of the city of Vasylkiv in the district, with buying votes on behalf of Poroshenko’s campaign. Poroshenko denied the existence of the vote buying scheme.
Dubinsky has also accused Kononenko of “buying” seats on the district election commission from Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy’s Samopomich Party and the Radical Party. Dubinsky says that allowed him to take over the commissions in order to lay the groundwork for vote rigging in the parliamentary election.
“These are groundless accusations spread by my competitors because they are worried about voters’ high trust in me in District 94,” Kononenko told the Kyiv Post.
Sadovy told the Kyiv Post that Samopomich had not sold any quotas and was not in favor of Kononenko’s re-election. Lyashko said Dubinsky’s claim was a “lie.”
During the presidential election, the district commission also prompted suspicions because of disruptions in the vote counting process and a 5-day delay in the counting of votes. Mosiychuk and Mykola Nedilko, a member of the Vasylkiv city council, accused the commission of rigging the election results.
Kostyantyn Khivrenko, a spokesman for the Central Election Commission, told the Kyiv Post that it is up to law enforcement to react to such reports of alleged voting fraud.
Who is Kononenko?
Kononenko’s clout appears to have weakened since his boss Poroshenko lost the presidential election on April 21.
Several top officials associated with the previous government in Kyiv Oblast, including District 94, have been fired or suspended. These include Kyiv Oblast Governor Oleksandr Tereshchuk, Kyiv Oblast Police Chief Dmytro Tsenov, Vasylkiv Police Chief Vasyl Pervak and Vasylkiv Mayor Sabadash.
However, there are some remaining connections in the district — the 1+1 TV channel filmed Kononenko taking village mayors on a boat ride in June.
Kononenko’s connection to corruption scandals has so far been a constant liability for him in the election. He is still under investigation in numerous corruption cases, meaning that being reelected to the Rada is essential for him, given the current parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Kononenko has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
“Ancient generals understood that, if you burn ships, soldiers fight better because there’s nowhere to retreat,” Kovzhun said. “Kononenko has few options left: he may go either to the Rada or to trial. He’ll fight harder than everyone else.”
Graft investigations
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, or NABU, is investigating Kononenko in a graft case linked to the state-owned Odesa Portside Plant, a giant fertilizer producer. Oleksandr Vizir, an aide to Kononenko, became a member of Odesa Portside Plant’s board of directors in 2016.
NABU is also investigating Kononenko in a corruption case involving Dmytro Kryuchkov, the CEO of power company Energomerezha. He testified in April that Poroshenko and his top ally Igor Kononenko had received 50 to 70 percent of the income from energy corruption schemes. Both have denied the accusations.
Another NABU investigation concerns alleged embezzlement involving Kyiv’s Rybalsky Kuznya shipyard, which was previously owned by Poroshenko and Kononenko.
Before quitting in 2016, Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius also accused Kononenko of trying to install protégés at his ministry and many state firms to profiteer from them.
In 2015, British journalist Graham Stack published an investigation suggesting Kononenko could be behind an alleged money laundering scheme involving Ukrprominvest, a group founded by Kononenko and Poroshenko.
Meanwhile, fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko has accused Kononenko of involvement in various corruption schemes and of buying votes in parliament, and he published alleged WhatsApp correspondence that he says confirms his claims.
However, Kononenko’s advantage is that he has been effectively campaigning in the district since 2017. Political consultant Vitaly Bala told the Kyiv Post that Kononenko had entrenched himself in the district and could have a chance to win if there is a high turnout.
Controversial journalist
Born in Kyiv in 1981, Dubinsky has been a journalist at the 1+1 TV channel, owned by controversial oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, since 2010. He is the host of 1+1’s Hroshi (Money) anti-corruption show. Dubinsky also has a video blog in which he often uses obscene language to lash out at Poroshenko and other politicians. He is controversial and is seen by his critics as biased in favor of Kolomoisky due to his apologetic stance on the oligarch and his highly negative coverage of Kolomoisky’s enemies, including ex-National Bank of Ukraine Chief Valeria Gontareva.
Unusually for a journalist, he also leads an expensive lifestyle, which includes owning several apartments in Kyiv. Dubinsky has said that he enjoys this lifestyle using money he has earned as a journalist.
Dubinsky did not respond to a request for comment.
Kovzhun argued that, thanks to his Hroshi show, Dubinsky is well-known to the electorate and will benefit from Servant of the People’s support. However, his controversial reputation is a liability in the election, he added.
