What should the opposition do in this situation? The best way is to achieve the adoption of the Law on elections of mayor in two rounds. This will automatically relieve the problem of nominating a single candidate from the United Opposition. On the contrary, under conditions of two-round elections there would be a necessity to nominate as many candidates. Then Kyiv citizens, not the backroom agreements, would define the result of the elections. A candidate, who would win in the second round by consolidating the opposition electorate, would be a legitimate representative of the community, selected by the majority of Kyiv.
A draft law has already been submitted to the Parliament personally by me for three times. However then and now it is disadvantageous for most parliamentarians. Therefore, it found no support. So, we have to win in one round. That is why, we need the only candidate.
Last autumn Vitaliy Klychko was the most likely candidate from the opposition. His rating guaranteed him victory. But Vitaliy obviously will not take part in Kyiv elections. It is clear. He has the ultimate goal – the presidency.
Opposition needs another candidate. Instead of determining the name of the only candidate, conducting a transparent selection of the highest-rated policy, opposition leaders began to make the same mistakes – conducting backroom agreements, bargaining openly. As a result, a bet was made on a person who definitely can not represent the opposition in Kyiv elections.
It is about Petro Poroshenko. I state that he has no moral right to run for the opposition. He is not a member of any party of the United Opposition. Being elected to Parliament, he has not joined the parliamentary faction “Batkivshchyna”. It remains clear: he does not want to declare his opposition views openly, putting his business assets in danger.
Unfortunately, such behavior is typical for Ukrainian businessmen. When it was profitable for Petro Poroshenko, he joined the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine headed by Azarov. Then he became an “independent” politician, competing in parliamentary elections with the opposition. And now it is advantageous for him to be a part of a team, which has the best chance to win in Kyiv. And he again has a need in the opposition.
I respect Petro Poroshenko as a personality, as a prominent businessman, who through his wealth is in the world rankings magazine “Forbes”, as a person, who has done a lot for Vinnytsia and Vinnytsia region, as an entrepreneur, who formed and developed Confectionery industry of Ukraine. But in politics, unfortunately, our views largely coincide.
From my point of view, big business has no place in Ukrainian politics. The demand to separate business and politics has been already proclaimed on the Maidan. Income is the nature of business. And if business gets into politics, then income is obtained by the expense of others, without any competition or market mechanisms. And it is a direct path to corruption.
I am totally against it. While nominating Petro Poroshenko, Kyiv will again face the usual choice: the official supported by the President, or the government dependent multimillionaire. We have already been in such situation. The multimillionaire Leonid Chernovetskiy has proved that he and his young team needed power only for personal enrichment. When the Party of Regions decided to seize power in Kyiv, they easily removed Leonid Chernovetskiy. After all, his own business assets were more valuable for him than interests of Kyiv citizens. Any other respectable businessman would not act like he did.
Now we are told that Kyiv needs a “host”. I do not understand where the logic is: we want the European standards of living in the capital but we are proposed a soviet “host”. In addition, mayors are not business executives in any European capitals neither in London nor in Paris, nor in Vienna, nor in Prague. Hosts work there at lower levels, whereas a Mayor is a politician. And if we want Kyiv to become a city with European standards of living, we need to forget about the “host” and choose a mayor from the opposition leaders, politicians of the European level. Yes, these words are not popular among the majority, but it is a politician who protects interests of Kyiv citizens, who is able to develop a strategy for development, to return the lost system of the local government, to remove central authorities outside the city, to achieve the capital budget being managed by its inhabitants. And for hosts and businessmen work will also be found. First ones will execute the mayor`s decision in favor of Kyiv citizens. Second ones will be engaged in business in a fair competitive basis and pay taxes to the city budget.
The opposition loses its chance to win, delaying the election of the only candidate. We do not have the mechanism of selecting a candidate who would be guaranteed to win, whereas the government has such a mechanism. A candidate appointed by Victor Yanukovych will become the only candidate from the authorities. Fighting with this candidate in one round may end fatally, and we will lose Kyiv. But we must win!
To be continued…