You're reading: Saakashvili, allies consider starting party

As President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk keep losing the trust of Ukrainians because of unchecked corruption and broken promises, candidates are lining up to take their places in leading Ukrainians and parliament.

With the possibility of an early election on the horizon, a political realignment is taking shape.

A deadline to solve the current political gridlock comes this week, as Ukraine’s Western partners are demanding clarity before the next installments of a multibillion-dollar aid package are disbursed.

This gives new movements and leaders a chance to realign and make their case to the people.

One of the most active ones is Mikheil Saakashvili, governor of Odessa Oblast since May 2014 and ex-president of Georgia.

Since December, Saakashvili and his aides have been on a road show around Ukraine, organizing a series of anti-corruption Forums and presenting their civic initiative, the Movement for Cleansing, in big cities.

The question on whether this is turning into a political movement hangs in the air. On March 14, Sasha Borovik, a deputy governor in Odesa Oblast, announced that the Movement for Cleansing is preparing to take part in the next parliament election as a political party.

But Saakashvili immediately denied it.

“I’m not planning to start any party now,” he told Ukrainska Pravda.

Borovik, however, said that there is an ongoing discussion within the Movement for Cleansing on whether to transform it into a party. The decision will be made soon.

“We are going to put this question to the movement’s coordination council to decide,” Borovik, a strong advocate of turning the movement into a party, told the Kyiv Post. “This is where I personally want this movement to be going.”

Viktor Chumak, a lawmaker who left the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko in January, confirmed that the discussion about a new political movement is well under way.

And Serhiy Leshchenko, a lawmaker with the president’s faction who also participated in Saakashvili’s events around Ukraine, said that the participants of the movement “will inevitably consolidate politically.”

When they do, he is likely to join.

“I would be honored to participate in building honest Ukrainian politics with like-minded people as a party,” he said.

At the same time, he said, some people within the movement are not yet ready to turn it into a political party, and some are categorically against it.

Saakashvili has a lot at stake. He can’t be elected to parliament as he only received his Ukrainian citizenship in 2015. Ukrainian legislation demands that a candidate for president or parliament live in Ukraine for at least five years before they can be elected.

Saakashvili’s loyalty is to Poroshenko, who appointed him as a governor and granted him citizenship.

The two have known each other since their college years when both studied at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.

Poroshenko only gave Saakashvili citizenship one year after becoming president, thus ensuring that his old friend will not be able to run for parliament or president until 2020, and will miss the next election.

“Saakashvili has to consider the interests of Poroshenko,” says Volodymyr Fesenko, Kyiv-based political analyst and head of Penta political research center. “Borovik and many others want seats in parliament and government.”

At the same time, Saakashvili is not a front-runner for prime minister because he lacks support in parliament.

Both Leshchenko and Borovik emphasized that while Saakashvili is the most recognizable figure of the Movement for Cleansing, it is a democratic organization with a horizontal hierarchy and a governing council. Hence, the decision to transform the movement into a political force would come from the council.

“As soon as there is a decision on an early election, Saakashvili’s team will make a decision about which political platform they will use to run in it,” Fesenko said. “They will campaign on the idea of making Saakashvili prime minister.”