With time ticking down to the first round of the presidential election, three presidential candidates – Yevgeniy Murayev, Dmytro Dobrodomov and Serhiy Kryvonos – said they were withdrawing from the race on March 7, whittling the field down to a mere… 39 candidates.
With March 7 being the last day to withdraw from the upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for March 31, three presidential candidates decided to take the opportunity to bow out and remove their name from the ballot in favor of more popular candidates.
Kryvonos, a colonel and deputy head of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, a branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who, according to himself, initiated his campaign because he didn’t agree with the situation in the security and defense sector of Ukraine, withdrew his candidacy in favor of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, saying one shouldn’t change the commander-in-chief in a time of war.
Samopomich Party leader Andriy Sadoviy earlier withdrew from the race.
Murayev, a pro-Russian independent lawmaker, withdrew his candidacy in favor of Oleksandr Vilkul, a similar pro-Russian lawmaker from the 38-member Opposition Bloc and presidential candidate from a rogue fraction named Opposition Bloc – Party of Peace and Development.
The name change was due to infighting in the Opposition Bloc, with the de-facto leader of the party Yuriy Boyko siding with the rogue “For Life” faction associated with Vadim Rabinovych, a pro-Russian politician convicted during in 1984 for the theft of state property. The party is also linked to Viktor Medvedchuk, whose daughter’s godfather is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dobrodomov, an independent lawmaker who heads the not for-profit anti-corruption watchdog Narodny Kontrol, withdrew his candidacy in favor of Anatoliy Grytsenko, former defense minister and one of the top five presidential candidates, according to polls.
On March 1, Lviv Mayor Andryi Sadovyi, withdrew his candidacy in favor of Grytsenko, saying they were forming a united democratic opposition.
