Over 370 candidates compete at the mid-terms elections on July 17 in seven Ukrainian regions for the seven vacant parliament seats.
The seats have been vacated in Verkhovna Rada after some lawmakers left the parliament for the government posts, were expelled from the parliament or died.
The new lawmakers will be elected in Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Poltava and Luhansk Oblasts.
The current Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Prosecutor General Yury Lustenko were the lawmakers of President Petro Poroshenko’s party before obtaining their top posts.
A new Constitution norm also allows the parties to initiate the expulsions of lawmakers, who were elected by the party tickets but later left their factions.
This way a former lawmaker Yegor Firsov was expelled from the parliament for his criticism of President Petro Poroshenko’s party. Now he tries to be re-elected to Verkhovna Rada through the elections in Chernihiv Oblast.
The other candidates in Chernihiv Oblast are Yury Vlasenko, endorsed by ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of Batkivshchyna party, and Maksym Mykytas, an owner of construction company close to the presidential team.
In Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, the two main candidates are Sergiy Nasalyk, brother of energy minister, supported by the presidential party, and Viktor Shevchenko, supported by UKROP nationalist party, close to oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.
In Volyn Oblasts, the strongest candidates are businessman Sergiy Bula from the Radical Party and university professor Iryna Kostankevych from UKROP.
In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the strongest competitor is Tetiana Rychkova, a famous army volunteer, and employee of the defense ministry. Though Rychkova runs as an independent candidate, the analysts say she is endorsed by both the presidential party and UKROP.
In Kherson Oblast, the scandalous police colonel Iliya Kyva, who became known in the region for clashes with the participants of Crimea’s blockade in autumn 2015. But the strongest candidates at this district are the two former regional governors — Andriy Putylov from Poroshenko’s party and Yury Odarchenko, endorsed by Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna.
In Poltava Oblast, the main candidates are Oleksiy Riabokon, mayor of Pyriatyn city, and Ruslan Bohdan, the candidate from Batkivshchyna.
In Luhansk Oblast, the main competitors are Borys Lebedev from Opposition Bloc, formed by the former allies of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, and Sergiy Shahov, the candidate from Our Land (Nash Kray), a party seen by many observers as close to the presidential administration. The election district center was chosen as Stanytsia Luhanska, an often shelled city, located in the suburbs of the separatists-controlled Luhansk.
The observers saw numerous minor violations in all the election districts.
OPORA elections watchdog found that the most common violation was handing over of the election bulletin without the proper documents. Oleksiy Koshel, chairman of Committee of Voters of Ukraine, said the biggest problem of the current elections is bribing of voters.
According to Central Election Commission, as of 4 p.m. the biggest turnover was recorded in Volyn where more than 38 percent voters showed up at the polling stations. Voters in Kherson Oblast, in turn, appear the most passive, as a bit more than 10 percent of them took part in the elections. The polling stations will close at 8 p.m.
