Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, is holding a mayoral by-election on Oct. 31, months after the death of its former mayor Hennady Kernes.
The polls opened on Oct. 31 at 8 a.m local time and will close at 8 p.m. Over 1 million people are expected to vote for a mayor at one of 605 polling stations across Kharkiv.
For Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people located 460 kilometers to the east of Kyiv, this by-election is significant as voters will choose a new mayor after Kernes’ 10-year reign, which was marked by scandals and controversy.
But experts do not consider the election to be a fresh start. Even after Kernes’s death, Kharkivians still feel his presence as they cast ballots for one of 10 candidates: The most likely winners, Igor Terekhov or Mikhail Dobkin, are both close friends and allies of the deceased mayor.
Who is who
Ten candidates are running to become the new mayor of Kharkiv. If none of them gets over 50% of the votes, the city will hold a second round on Nov. 21 with the two most popular candidates. The results of today’s by-election will be announced by Nov. 12.
Here is a list of candidates in the same order as shown on the ballots:
- Viktor Velychkov, 64, self-nominated
- Mikhail Dobkin, 51, self-nominated
- Dmytro Marynin, 54, self-nominated
- Alina Mustafayeva, 29, self-nominated
- Konstantin Nemichev, 25, self-nominated
- Sergey Ryapolov, 40, self-nominated
- Vladimir Pletnev, 60, Party of Shariy
- Oleksandr Skoryk, 46 European Solidarity party
- Igor Terekhov, 54, Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv party
- Denis Yaroslavsky, 39, self-nominated
Experts said that there are two real contenders for Kernes’ place — Igor Terekhov, his first deputy and acting mayor of Kharkiv and Mikhail Dobkin, Kernes’ former friend and ally. From the beginning, both positioned themselves as the successors of Kernes’ political legacy.
Kernes was among the most popular mayors in Ukraine. In the 2020 mayoral election in Kharkiv, over 60% of voters supported him, although Kernes didn’t appear in public for months and died in December 2020 from COVID-19 complications.
After Kernes’ death, Kharkiv city council announced that Terekhov will serve as acting mayor following Kernes’ letter with this request which he allegedly sent before his death from Berlin, where he was receiving treatment for COVID-19.
The recent poll showed that the second-most popular choice for the mayor after Terekhov is Dobkin, the former lawmaker from the Party of Regions and the Opposition Bloc. In 2006, Kernes helped Dobkin to win the mayoral election in Kharkiv.
Other participants of the Kharkiv mayor’s race are mostly self-nominated and less known to the public.
COVID-19 prevention
Although the by-election in Kharkiv is taking place during the pandemic, everyone can participate provided they are following СOVID-19 restrictions.
Only voters wearing masks will be allowed into polling stations. There will be temperature checks at the entrance, but if someone has a fever, they won’t be prevented from voting. They will simply go to an isolated booth and drop their ballot into a separate ballot box.
COVID-19 patients will also have the opportunity to vote. During the day, members of the election commission in protective gear will visit infected voters who requested this service in advance. The same will happen in hospitals.
The 2021 electoral code doesn’t require voters to bring a negative PCR test or a vaccination certificate.
