As the vote count for the parliamentary elections continue with 61 percent processed, the Kyiv Post offers a look at the remarkable victories in single-mandate districts, which combined, will fill half the 450-seat legislature.
For party list results read: Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front leads as over 57 percent of votes counted (LIVE UPDATES)
Borys Filatov
district 27, Dnipropetrovsk
With 80 percent of the votes counted, Borys Filatov is winning in district 27 in Dnipropetrovsk with 56.27 percent.
Read in Kyiv Post: In Dnipropetrovsk, ‘merciless’ millionaire businessman moves fast to quell unrest
Filatov co-owns some of the most pricey realty in Dnipropetrovsk. In March he accepted the post of deputy head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from the region’s governor and billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskiy. He took to overseeing the exchange of prisoners with separatist insurgents in Donetsk Oblast and organized the delivery of wounded Ukrainian soldiers to hospitals in Dnipropetrovsk.
“According to exit polls, my result is one of the highest in the coutry,” Filatov wrote on his Facebook timeline, adding that he “will not fail his native district”.
He accused President Petro Poroshenko and his party of interfering in the elections in the region, which led to the Opposition Block winning in the region.
Filatov claims that Poroshenko’s people were “frightened that Dnipropetrovsk team can get too much power.”
At the same time, Block of Petro Poroshenko didn’t nominated any candidates in the district of Filatov. None of the other pro-Western parties nominated candidates in his district too – Opposition Bloc, People’s Front and Samopomich.
Filatov is part of Virgin Galactic’s space tourism program. His space flight was initially planned for this year.
Dmytro Yarosh
district 39, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
With 92 percent of votes counted, Dmytro Yarosh is winning with a result of 29.75 percent.
Read in Kyiv Post: Yarosh becomes Kremlin poster boy for extremism
Leader of the nationalist party Right Sector , known foe takinf an active role in the EuroMaidan Revolution, Yarosh didn’t take the risk of putting his name of the party list. With half of votes counted, the Ringht Sector has only 1.9 percent of support. Yarosh himself ran in a single-seat district in his native region and succeeded. His run for the presedancy in May got him less than one percent of the vote.
At the same time Right Sector spokesperson Boryslav is leading in district 213 in Kyiv.
Yuklum Zvyagilskiy
district 45, Donetsk Oblast
District 45 in Donetsk Oblast is the only constituency where the count was already complete in the morning of Oct. 27. According to the Central Election Commission, Yukhym Zvyagilskiy is winning with a record result of 72 percent where all the 1,454 votes cast in four polling stations have been counted.
Read in Kyiv Post: In eastern Ukraine, old clans seek power through parliament elections
Zvyagilskiy, 81, has been a member of every
Ukrainian parliament since independence. For the last three elections
Zvyagilskiy ran with the Party of Regions, the party of former President
Viktor Yanukovych. Like many of his former party fellows, this time he
chose to run independently to avoid unwanted associations with the
former government. He voted for the January 16 “dictator laws.”
Viacheslav Konstantinovsky
district 220, Kyiv
Kyiv millionaire Viacheslav Konstantinovsky got to the parliament with 32,47 percent of votes. He was supported by the People’s Front party.
Read in Kyiv Post: Businessman who sold Rolls-Royce and went to war hopes to enter parliament
The businessman took active role in helping Ukrainian government troops in the military conflict in Ukraine’s east. He said he donated over Hr 8 million to Ukrainian army and sold his Rolls-Royce to cover part of it. Konstantinovsky and his twin brother own Kyiv Donbas Development Group and a restaurant chain in Kyiv. In 2013 Focus magazine estimated the fortune of the brothers as $355 million. In the ranking of the richest Ukrainians they took 44th place.
His main rival in the district was Dmytro Gordon, journalist, businessman and owner of Boulevard, a popular newspaper.
Andriy Biletskiy
district 217, Kyiv
Read in Kyiv Post: In Kyiv’s Obolon district, voters to choose between nationalist battalion commander, scandalous businessman
With 97 percent votes counted, Andriy Biletskiy, the controversial ultra-nationalist leader of the volunteer Azov Battalion defeats ex-member of the Party of Regions Vadym Stolar with a result of 33.74 percent. Biletskiy is a commander of Azov, Interior ministry’s special batallion based in Mariupol.
The district 217 appeared to be one of the most troublesome. The chairman of one of the local election committees was acсused in helping to hack the computer system of Central Election Committees and was detained. Biletskiy’s main rival was Vadym Stolar, a businessman and former Party of Regions member who already tried to win the district in 2012 elections. Stolar publicly admitted that Biletskiy won the race.