Kiev local election, 2008 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Early mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

al and city council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...

elections
Elections in Ukraine
Elections in Ukraine gives information on election and election results in Ukraine.Ukraine elects on national level a head of state and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people...

were contested in the Ukrainian

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

capital Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

(Kyiv) on May 25, 2008. The snap election

Snap election

A snap election is an election called earlier than expected. Generally it refers to an election in a parliamentary system called when not required , usually to capitalize on a unique electoral opportunity or to decide a pressing issue...

was called by the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada

Verkhovna Rada

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...

by a 246-5 vote on March 18 amid corruption

Political corruption

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

allegations involving the incumbent

Incumbent

The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...

Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi

Leonid Chernovetskyi

Leonid Mykhaylovych Chernovetskyi is the incumbent Mayor of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Before his political career, he was a successful businessman, founder and controlling stakeholder of the Pravex Group and Pravex Bank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine.-Biography:Chernovetskyi quit school...

. The local election determined the new Mayor of Kiev

Mayor of Kiev

Mayor of Kiev is the elected mayor of the municipality of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, who is also normally automatically appointed as Head of the City's State Administration and Chair of the City Council....

, as well as the composition of the 120-seat Kiev City Council

Kiev City Council

Kiev City Council or Kyivrada is the city council of Kiev municipality, the highest representative body of the city community. The members of city council are directly elected by Kievans and the council is chaired by the Mayor of Kiev .The council meets in a 1950s City Council building...

.

The Ukrainian parliament assigned the job of determining the election costs to the Central Election Commission of Ukraine

Central Election Commission of Ukraine

The Central Election Commission of Ukraine ; sometimes referred to as the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine) is a permanent and independent collegiate body of the Ukrainian government.- Mission and Authority :...

, working in partnership with the Kiev City Election Commission. The Kiev CEC designated March 26 as the date for the start of election campaigning

Political campaign

A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...

.

In all, seven parties and blocs passed the 3% threshold needed to gain seats in the Kiev City Council. The incumbent Leonid Chernovetskyi

Leonid Chernovetskyi

was officially declared the winner of the mayoral election on May 30. Yuriy Lozovskyi, Secretary of the Kiev CEC, said that the voter turnout

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

was estimated at 53-54%.

The electoral commission said that the elections were largely clear and fair without any major incidents, but that the largest electoral violation was voter shopping.

On December 12, 2008 Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Ukraine

The Prime Minister of Ukraine is Ukraine's head of government presiding over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government....

Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko , née Grigyan , born 27 November 1960, is a Ukrainian politician. She was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 4 March 2010. She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful...

announced at a news briefing that she is confident that early mayoral elections will be held again in Kiev.

Candidates, parties, and blocs

In all, seventy-nine candidates were registered by the Kiev Territorial Electoral Commission for the upcoming mayoral election. Candidates from some of the main political parties include:

the incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...

Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi
Leonid Chernovetskyi
Leonid Mykhaylovych Chernovetskyi is the incumbent Mayor of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Before his political career, he was a successful businessman, founder and controlling stakeholder of the Pravex Group and Pravex Bank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine.-Biography:Chernovetskyi quit school...

, from the Christian Liberal Party of Ukraine
Christian Liberal Party of Ukraine
Christian Liberal party of Ukraine is a political party in Ukraine. The party says that it is guided by the values of Christianity and the principles of Western European democracy: parliamentarism, the market economy, free labour and powerful social programs...

. He currently faces allegations of corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

and illegal privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

of Kiev territiories,
Vitaliy Klychko
Vitali Klitschko
Vitaliy Volodymyrovych Klychko is a Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and the current WBC heavyweight champion. He is a leader of the political party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform and a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Congress of the Council of Europe. He previously...

, a politician in the Kiev City Council and former heavyweight
Heavyweight
Heavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...

boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

,
Oleh Tyahnybok, from the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom",
Vladyslav Kaskyv, from the Civil Party "PORA"
Pora
PORA! , meaning IT'S TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization and political party in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy...

;
Vice-Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

Oleksandr Turchynov
Oleksandr Turchynov
Oleksandr Valentynovych Turchynov is a Ukrainian politician, a screenwriter, a Doctor of Economic Studies. He also was acting Prime Minister after former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government was dismissed on March 3, 2010...

, from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc;
Vasyl Horbal, from the Party of Regions
Party of Regions
The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others...

;

A total of 37 parties and blocs participated in the Kiev City Council election. These included both national (e.g. Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine) and local political parties (e.g. Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc

Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc

Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc was a regional political alliance supporting the Mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetskyi based in the city of Kiev. At the 2008 combined Kiev Mayoral election and Kiev City Council election the party won the most seats in the Kiev City Council...

Faction chances since the last elections

Severe changes have occurred in the Kiev Kiev City Council since 2008. As of September 2011 seven additional factions had been created (2 of them with only 2 members, 1 with 3 members). The faction of the winner of the election, the Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc

Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc

, disbanded itself on September 22, 2011. (all the deputies that were members of the faction at the time where then considered as independents); this made the faction of UDAR of Vitaliy Klychko

UDAR of Vitaliy Klychko

UDAR of Vitaliy Klychko UDAR of Vitaliy Klychko UDAR of Vitaliy Klychko (UDAR («УДАР»: stands for Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform ) is a political party in Ukraine headed by Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and the current WBC world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko....

the biggest faction with 12 seats (3 seats less them won) followed by the Party of Regions

Party of Regions

The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others...

with 10 seats (4 seats more then won). Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko saw 22 deputies leaving the faction since the election.

Since the 2008 election the following persons gave up there seat: Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko

, Oleksandr Turchynov

Oleksandr Turchynov

Oleksandr Valentynovych Turchynov is a Ukrainian politician, a screenwriter, a Doctor of Economic Studies. He also was acting Prime Minister after former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government was dismissed on March 3, 2010...

, Mykola Tomenko

Mykola Tomenko

Mykola Volodymyrovych Tomenko is a Ukrainian politician and statesman. He has been a member of the Verkhovna Rada for two consecutive convocations . In Verkhovna Rada he served as the Chairman of the Freedom of Speech and Mass Media Committee...

, Mykola Katerynchuk, Anatoliy Khostykoyev and Stepan Chernovetskyi (son of the Kiev Mayor). The next person in the party list is appointed a city council deputy when their colleagues give up there seat.

Polls

According to a telephone poll

Opinion poll

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

conducted prior to the election by the Razumkov Centre

Razumkov Centre

Razumkov Centre , or fully the Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies named after Olexander Razumkov , is a Ukrainian non-governmental public policy think tank....

, 25.2% of the respondents said they would support Vitaliy Klychko for the position of mayor, 24.9% support Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi, 10% support the former city mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko

Oleksandr Omelchenko

Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Omelchenko became the mayor of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in 1999. He lost his re-election bid in March 2006. Omelchenko is now member of the Verkhovna Rada elected on behalf of Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc but expelled from that fraction in September 2011....

, 6% support current Vice-Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Ukraine

The Prime Minister of Ukraine is Ukraine's head of government presiding over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government....

Oleksandr Turchynov

, and 5.4% said they support the Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko

Yuriy Lutsenko

Yuriy Vitaliyovych Lutsenko is a Ukrainian politician and statesman and former Minister of Internal Affairs, he occupied this post in the two Cabinets of Yulia Tymoshenko and in Cabinets of Yuriy Yekhanurov, and Viktor Yanukovych...

.

A different poll conducted by the Center of Political and Marketing Studies Sotsis, showed that 22.8% of the respondents support the incumbent mayor, 22% support Vitaliy Klychko, 11.5% support Oleksandr Omelchenko, 6.3% support Verkhovna Rada Deputy Mykola Tomenko

Mykola Tomenko

, and 5.7% support Yuriy Lutsenko.

Calls for new snap elections

On December 12, 2008 Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Ukraine

The Prime Minister of Ukraine is Ukraine's head of government presiding over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government....

Yulia Tymoshenko

announced at a news briefing that she is confident that early mayoral elections will be held again in Kiev. On December 11, 2008 the Kyivenerho power company began cutting the supply of hot water to about 5,000 homes in Kiev because of the Kiev municipal administration's failure to compensate the company for the difference between the tariffs charged by Kyivenerho and the actual cost of its services, Tymoshenko accuses incumbent

Incumbent

Mayor

Mayor of Kiev

Leonid Chernovetskyi

of using money from the municipal budget to finance his election campaign (and so there were insufficient funds to pay Kyivenerho).

On February 6, 2009 the Vitaliy Klychko Bloc

Vitaliy Klychko Bloc

stated it will apply to the Verkhovna Rada

Verkhovna Rada

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...

, the Cabinet of Ministers

Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

The Cabinet of Ukraine is the highest body of state executive power in Ukraine also referred to as the Government of Ukraine...

, the National Security and Defense Council

National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine

National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine , locally referred by its abbreviation RNBO, is an organizational state body in Ukraine tasked with developing national security policy on domestic and international matters in advising the President of Ukraine .The Council was originally created in...

and the Kiev prosecutor's office with a request to take into consideration the unlawfulness of Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi actions and to call early mayoral elections in the city.

Early January 2010 Parliament Speaker

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament. The speaker presides over the parliament and its procedures. They are elected by secret ballot from the parliament's deputy ranks...

Volodymyr Lytvyn

Volodymyr Mykhailovych Lytvyn is a Ukrainian politician and the current Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. Having previously served in that position from 2002 until 2006, he was re-elected in December 2008 after his party agreed to join the former coalition of Yulia...

stated he started preparing a darft law to conduct an early mayoral election in Kiev on May 30, 2010 as well as a local council election. He stated he "could not stand what was going on in Kiev any longer" and that his own Lytvyn Bloc would will take part in the election. A resolution setting early Kiev election for May 30, 2010 was registered in the Ukrainian parliament on January 18, 2010 but it was not included in the agenda yet. The resolution was cancelled on February 16, 2010.

On February 16, 2010 the Ukrainian parliament cancelled all Ukrainian local election dates original set for May 30, 2010. A new date was not set but Members of Parliament expected new local elections in the spring of 2011. Eventually these local elections did take place late 2010 but the next Kiev local election (including Mayoral elections) are set for 2012.

Candidates, parties, and blocs

Faction chances since the last elections

Polls

Calls for new snap elections

See also