The retired world boxing champion nicknamed “Dr. Iron Fist,” Klitschko is widely considered to be the front-runner with good chances for re-election, despite some compromising associations with exiled oligarch Dmytro Firtash and local real estate developers.
The list of his 28 rivals includes a former Kyiv mayor, Oleksandr Omelchenko, who long ago lost political popularity, several current and former lawmakers and a few businesspeople, none of whom seems to be famous or popular enough to compete against Klitschko.
“Klitschko has no chance to win in the first round of Kyiv mayor elections due to the lack of support among voters. But he will probably win in the second round,” says political analyst Vadym Karasyov.
If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of votes, the two top vote-getters will have to meet in the second round.
Karasyov believes that a 77-year-old Omelchenko is the most “comfortable political rival” for the “young and energetic” Klitschko in the second round. “Klitschko’s staff plans that Omelchenko will go to second round,” he says.
Klitschko’s team uses the same strategy as in 2014, when he secured his victory as a Kyiv mayor following a political alliance with his fellow millionaire and President Petro Poroshenko’s Solidarity Party.
On Aug. 28, Klitschko’s UDAR (Punch) party merged with Poroshenko’s Solidarity to jointly run for Kyiv mayor and Kyiv City Council seats. According to their agreement, Solidarnist party will get 75 percent of seats in the joint list, while the UDAR candidates will receive the remaining 25 percent.
This way Klitschko hiked his chances to receive a majority in the next council despite falling popularity of his party.
In summer, only 1.8 percent of voters were ready to support Klitschko’s UDAR party in elections to the Kyiv City Council, while Poroshenko’s Solidarity had 27 percent support, according to the survey conducted by the Social Monitoring Center polling organization and Oleksandr Yaremenko Institute of Sociological Studies.
Klitschko was elected as mayor on May 25, 2014, on the same day when Poroshenko was elected as the country’s president following the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych as president in the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Klitschko was elected for a term of less than 1.5 years, the next Kyiv mayor will serve four years and the city council five years.
Following his election as mayor last year, Klitschko triggered criticism for appointing a controversial real estate developer Ihor Nikonov as his deputy in the city council.
“Klitschko is not an independent politician,” Karasyov said. “He is dependent on the local construction business. (Vadym) Stolar and Nikonov are de facto running the city while Klitschko is just a talking head.”
Klitschko is also commonly believed to rely on support from energy and chemicals tycoon Dmytro Firtash, who faces allegations of bribery in the U.S. and who lives in Vienna. Firtash denies the corruption allegations.
Speaking in court proceedings in Austria this spring, Firtash claimed that he financially backed Klitschko. He also said that he had a meeting with Poroshenko and Klitschko ahead of the 2014 presidential election, helping both politicians to unite behind Poroshenko as president and Klitschko as mayor.
Klitschko’s press service refused to comment on his relations with Firtash. But in a written response to the Kyiv Post, Klitschko’s spokespeople insisted that he finances his campaign with his own money. “This is over Hr 13 million (over $595,000),” the press service said in an emailed statement.
Vitaliy Bala, the head of the Situations Modeling Agency, believes that Poroshenko’s allies influence Klitschko decisions and support his party financially.
“He goes for local elections as a head of pro-presidential Solidarity party,” he says. “Some Solidarity members might support Klitschko financially with pleasure.”
Klitschko’s reelection in Kyiv might turn into a Pyrrhic victory, political analysts believe.
“He might be reelected and get the Kyiv city council where he will not have a majority,” Bala says.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
