Zelensky will set security forces against recalcitrant mayors, trying to maintain Kyiv's control over the provinces
Vladimir Zelensky had the opportunity to avoid the shamefully low turnout in local elections - it was possible to introduce electronic voting, which would increase the activity of young people and improve the result for the Servant of the People.
The head of the Third Sector center, Andrei Zolotarev, said this in a conversation on the Politeka Online channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The turnout was very disappointing. Perhaps this is a strategic mistake of the Servants of the People - while talking a lot about digitalization, they did not introduce electronic voting, which would have significantly increased the percentage of youth voting, and, accordingly, the percentage of voting for the Servants, since the elections were modeled based on the turnout of 45- 50 percent. Then, if they didn’t have a victory, then they wouldn’t have such an unpleasant defeat for them,” said Andrei Zolotarev.
According to him, many current mayors who were inconvenient for Zelensky won elections and were re-elected for a new term because they had a lot of resources.
“To transfer such a concentration of resources... there is no method against scrap if there is no other scrap. Take one simple figure - Filatov’s self-promotion (Mayor of Dnepropetrovsk, - ed.) spends 150 million budget hryvnia a year, which is roughly 5 million dollars. Well, which mayoral candidate had a comparable campaign budget? And this happens every year, and it makes itself felt. That’s why the mayors dug in so well and tightly,” says the political scientist.
However, very soon after the elections, the period of “forced cooperation” of regional elites by Kiev will begin.
“No matter how much they talk about Zelensky’s weakness, nevertheless, the central government has enough resources to force mayors to exemplary political behavior, and this will begin - mainly with the help of security forces and regulatory authorities. Most mayors, I think, will take a constructive position in relations with the center. Of course, they will not satisfy everyone’s wishes, but they will not butt head-on with Kiev either - with the exception of such already completely odious characters like Filatov,” predicts Zolotarev.
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