Political party Syla i Chest (Strength and Honor), led by former presidential candidate Ihor Smeshko, presented the top 10 candidates for the July 21 parliamentary election at its party convention on June 8.
“These are the people who, from the very first days, will be able to work professionally in all areas and help us to restore the rule of law,” Smeshko said, describing his team as consisting of “renowned, reputable, professional, experienced and young leaders.”
Smeshko won 6 percent of the vote in the March 31 presidential election, finishing in sixth place.
According to the latest poll conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, Syla i Chest is unlikely to receive 5 percent of the vote, the threshold needed to enter parliament. The poll reveals that 3.8 percent of respondents who plan to vote and who have made up their minds who to vote for will favor Syla i Chest. In 2010, Smeshko entered politics with the Ukrainian Strength and Honor (SICH) party, which he formed with several former security and intelligence officials. In 2014, ex-President Petro Poroshenko appointed Smeshko as an adviser.
The top 10 list of Syla i Chest includes:
- Smeshko – head of Syla i Chest party, the first military attaché of independent Ukraine in the USA and Switzerland, former head of the Main Directorate of Military Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) from 2003 to 2005.
- Olena Sotnyk – a lawmaker from the Samopomich faction, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada committee on European integration, representative of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
- Refat Chubarov – a lawmaker from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, member of parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations. Chubarov was a member of Ukrainian parliament in 1998-2007
- Ivan Miroshnichenko – a lawmaker from Samopomich faction, member of the parliamentary Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations.
- Volodymyr Zamana – retired colonel general, chief of the General Staff in 2012-2014. Zamana was charged with high treason and arrested in February. In May, he was released on personal recognizance.
- Olha Romaniuk – former deputy minister of Housing and Communal Services.
- Andrii Haidutskyi – former deputy head of the State Property Fund.
- Iryna Sysoyenko – member of parliament representing the Samopomich party, deputy chair the parliamentary health committee.
- Volodymyr Tymoshenko – former first deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine.
- Anatoliy Makarenko – former head of the State Customs Service (2009 – 2010), former deputy head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine
