The Ukrainian parliamentary elections on 26 October confirmed the country’s pro-European orientation by choosing representatives from the social forces that were involved in the Maidan revolution. The power of the oligarchs, understood to be responsible for the corruption that plagued Ukraine after its independence, has been diminished, even though President Petro Poroshenko is a reformed oligarch. He hailed the results as “democratic, reformist, pro-Ukrainian and pro-European”.
Mr. Poroshenko’s bloc gathered 21.4% in the nationwide vote for party preference coming in second behind Arseny Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front, which got 21.7% of the vote. Nevertheless, Mr. Poroshenko’s party is considered the dominant force in the coalition due to winning a larger number of races in the individual districts that fill half of the parliament’s 450 seats. Petro Poroshenko has backed Arseny Yatsenyuk for a new term as prime minister.
Not a single Communist Party candidate was elected. Mr. Poroshenko noted that it would be the first time in 96 years that Communists would not be represented in the Ukrainian legislature. The far right is not to be represented either: Right Sector received only 1.6 % of the vote, far short of the minimum 5 % threshold to join parliament.
Voting did not take place in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March, nor in areas in Eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels blocked the vote. Therefore, 27 of the 450 seats in parliament — 12 in Crimea and 15 in eastern Ukraine — will remain for now vacant.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told reporters that his country was prepared to accept the election results, though he repeated that the Kiev government was responsible for fracturing Ukraine.
EU Parliament president, Martin Schulz, lauded the conduct of the elections in Ukraine, which he found to be “fair and pluralist”. He predicted the new government would have “the paramount challenge to work for a peaceful solution to the conflict, launch an economic rebirth with the help of Ukraine’s partners, kick-start key reforms, especially with regard to the rule of law and the judicial system, and rooting out chronic corruption”.
The editorial team of Katoikos
