Recently, the Ministry of Regional Development of Ukraine has developed a ranking of areas with the highest amount of capable territorial communities. The analysis was carried out on the basis of 4 parameters: number of UTCs (including information about communities whose documents are in the CEC for the appointment of the first elections), the UTC area, the united territorial communities (local councils) and number of UTCs with less than 5 thousand people.
In the overall rating, Vinnytsia region is in 17th place. Neighboring Khmelnytsky and Zhytomyr regions have the first and second place respectively. Moreover, the pace in 2015, when the reform of decentralization began, was relatively good. According to the number of united communities, the Vinnytsia region was in the sixth position, and already in 2016 became the 21th. Why so? The answer is simple. It is necessary to hold the elections to create the UTCs. Moreover the elections must be conducted in district centers. And this creates a lot of problems for regional authorities, first of all – for the party affiliation of city and village heads.
The Vinnytsia region is considered to be the “base” region for the President and the pro-presidential political force. And it is expected the candidates from “BPP” to win all the elections in this region. An analogy can be drawn with the Donetsk region for the Party of Regions.
But the problem is that voters do not want to vote for candidates from the “BPP”, because the living standards in the country are falling, and the Ukrainians did not see the promised “breakthrough” in the reforms. Therefore, the elections in the UTCs show that the self-nomination candidates – managers who are not involved in the party games or representatives of the opposition political forces win. However, the party leadership of the “BPP” must report that in the “marker” Vinnytsia region, the positions of the presidential party are stable. And any subsequent elections, presidential or parliamentary, it necessarily wins.
The authorities found a simple way out from this uneasy situation. Elections to the UTCs in Vinnytsia are only intended for those districts where party functionaries have been able to persuade the nomination of “BPP” candidates with a high ranking rating. In the same place, where opposition leaders are acting (for example, in Gaisyn, where the mayor of the opposition party won the elections with the support of 90% citizens), the elections to the UTCs are regularly carried over. It is only done in order not to spoil the carefully created picture of the Vinnytsia region in the media, as a “basic” for the highest figures of the state.
The problem is that such an indefinite situation can not last forever. Whether the power wants or not, the elections will still take place, but closer to the presidential ones. And then the picture will become even more unattractive. What does a problem with the delay in the creation of UTCs mean? It shows that the positions of power even in such an area as Vinnytsia region are extremely shaky. And the closer to the elections, the weaker they will be. The people’s deputies, that all elected in the “majoritarian” area from the “BPP”, also feel that. Will they rely on this political force in the upcoming elections? Doubtful.
There is only one conclusion from all the said above. The difference between the party of “Vinnitsa” and the party of “Donetsk” is that “regionalists” built their own party vertical. But the “BPP” remained the project for one election.
We want to remind agile officials that decentralization of power with its transfer to local communities is an important step towards building a European society in Ukraine. The braking of this reform is the evidence of the reluctance of the authorities to give their unlimited powers.
Therefore, the “European Party of Ukraine” demands to stop immediately the sabotage of the decentralization reform, which is a driving force for the development of communities, in Vinnytsia region. We demand from the authorities to conduct the honest dialogue with the society about the UTCs and to hold the elections in the terms specified by the legislation of Ukraine. No political phobia of the current government has the right to hinder the process of creating UTCs, to block the transfer of authority and financial resources to the local communities. In a country that has passed two revolutions at Maidan, no manual control, manipulation of statistics and virtual indicators will not work anymore.
The press service of the Vinnytsia regional organization “European Party of Ukraine”