Anti-elections

Recently the Kyiv council decided to assume power in the capital, by harassing, or possibly eliminating their rivals: the district councils. A corresponding initiative came from acting mayor Oleksandr Popov, who almost entirely replaced a Leonid Chernovetsky vacationing in Switzerland. Speaking at the session, he said: “We request to consider the possibility of allowing Kyiv authorities to settle the issue of whether there will be districts and district councils in Kyiv, or whether there will only be a vertical of power of the Kyiv city administration — district state administrations, which will be subordinated to the Kyiv city administration.” The Verkhovna Rada has the right to pass a corresponding decision as amendments to the Law “On the capital of Ukraine, the Hero-City of Kyiv.” Thus, deputies adopted a corresponding address to the parliament by 65 votes. They refer in it to the law on local self-government, which allows city councils and territorial communities of cities with a district division to address the need for establishing district councils in the city. “Thus, given the above-mentioned, we request you to settle the question on amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On capital of Ukraine, the Hero-City of Kyiv’ on establishing (or non-establishing) district councils,” the appeal states. Representatives of the Party of Regions, the Leonid Chernovetsky Bloc, as well as eight members from the faction of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and one (Dmytro Andriievsky) from the faction of the Klitschko Bloc voted for its adoption.

The official motivation of the decision (no expert doubts that it will be easily “stamped” in the parliament) lies in the fact that administrative costs for the managerial staff in the capital will be substantially reduced. Popov stressed that 3.6 thousand people currently work in the capital’s bureaucracy, and 309 million hryvnias are spent on them annually. “If we talk about the efficiency of the budgetary funds use, we should start saving resources beginning with ourselves,” said Popov. Kyiv deputies agreed to reduce the size of the Kyiv city administration by at least 20 percent (as of November 1, 2009).

However, not everyone liked such a radical change. The leader of the Strong Ukraine party and Vice Prime Minister of the country’s government Serhii Tihipko supports a “complete reset” of Kyiv authorities. “The abolition of district councils in Kyiv is a controversial decision that weakens local self-government. Authorities should be closer to people, there should be effective mechanisms for monitoring the authorities by the voters,” insists Tihipko. Speaking about the possibility of canceling the district councils in the capital, he said: “All international experience shows that it is necessary to strengthen local self-government. We shouldn’t deprive Kyiv residents of district deputies.” Tihipko suggests consulting Kyivans first: “The opinion of deputies of the city council is not the opinion of all citizens. I am confident that Kyivans would not support the abolition of district councils.” Furthermore, the “strong” leader noted that Kyiv is already getting ready for elections to district councils, and “they actually want to cancel them retroactively.” Tihipko fears that it “will be difficult to build the country” on such foundations.

Even more radical statements were heard last week at a press conference “Who benefits from eliminating the capital’s districts, and why?” where a sociological research “Kyiv, district elections” was made public. Director of the Strategic Consulting Company “Berta Communications” Taras Berezovets, argued that the elimination of the capital’s councils and, consequently, canceling elections in Kyiv, where the Party of Regions has no chance of getting the seat of mayor or heads of district councils was “a purge of the electoral field for one political force, and an attempt to restrict the voting rights of Kyiv residents.”