In Ukraine, during the elections this fall, there is a high probability that in the regions the “Party of Mayors” will actually “take out” the “Servant of the People” candidates in the first round, after which only representatives of local government will compete with each other in the second round.
Experts came to this opinion at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“If we are talking about the Party of Mayors, then, in fact, there are no heavyweights there,” said Andrei Zolotarev, head of the Third Sector center.
“We invited the mayor of Nikolaev. The support rating in the city is at the level of fat content of dietary kefir - the person is not re-electable. Yes, Raikovich has a chance (Kirovograd - ed.), Sukhomlin (Zhitomir - ed.) has good support. But there it’s 50/50. With Kaspruk (mayor of Chernivtsi – ed.) – they showed him how they force him to exhibit exemplary political behavior,” Zolotarev noted.
“Therefore, after all, this is not the “Party of Mayors,” but the party of Korban and Filatov (Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk - ed.) And when mayors ask whether it is worth getting involved - no, this is an offer that is better to refuse. Because, in fact, in Dnieper it is the party in power, by and large.
Good ideas are proclaimed - decentralization, expansion of the rights of local self-government, but in fact, this is not a party of local self-government, but a party of local self-government, because such chaos as in the Dnieper still needs to be looked for,” the expert added.
According to him, comparing Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk is “comparing the incomparable.”
“During the years of Filatov’s mayorship, the city certainly did not become better, and moreover, it fell into the ranks of the average. Moreover, Filatov is unique in that for the first time the mayor of Dnepr is promoting his beloved self at his own expense. 170 million for self-promotion and at the same time, there is no money for music schools. He has an outstanding KVN propagandist Gendin, who doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Therefore, when representatives of the “Proposition” declare themselves to be the “Party of Mayors”, they put an owl on the globe. Yes, Korban certainly wants to be like Kolomoisky, but again, I emphasize, they are comparing incomparable things.
He is still very far from Kolomoisky. But, apparently, he is acquiring a block of shares, evil tongues say that OPZZH controls it in Dnepropetrovsk and has its eye on “European Solidarity”. But these are the realities of local politics,” Zolotarev concluded.
In addition, the head of the Sociological Center named after M. Drahomanov, Sergei Shtepa, emphasized that Servant of the People could actually be eliminated in the first round.
“According to our research, the Servant of the People party, strictly speaking, occupies only approximately third positions in each of these regions. That is, local candidates go to the second round, respectively, Filatov and Krasnov in Dnieper, Kivalov and Trukhanov in Odessa.
Thus, we are talking about the fact that Zelensky himself has more support, less support for the party, and even less support for his local representatives.
Accordingly, in any of these regions, in my opinion, “Servant of the People” is unlikely to be able to count on a second round,” Shtepa concluded.