Kyiv has been without an elected mayor since June 3, 2012 when eccentric multimillionaire Leonid Chernovetsky’s five-year term expired. In practice, he no longer ran the city since November 2010. That’s when Oleksandr Popov, a caretaker friendly to the pro-presidential Party of Regions, was appointed as the capital’s administrative head.
Like all cities, Kyiv has little freedom to create a tax base from which it could draw revenue and address its own needs without having to beg the national government for money.
President Viktor Yanukovych, successful in getting state funds channeled to Donetsk when he was governor of that oblast, reiterated his hollow commitment to local governance in a televised question-and-answer session with the nation on Feb. 22. But over the past three years he and his Party of Regions have instead concentrated more power in the central government’s hands.
The contradictory political ideology is a clear indication that Yanukovych doesn’t want the Ukrainian people to set development priorities in their communities on a local level. Solving local problems using local resources and human capital is a key democratic cornerstone.
Investors would benefit as well. Big agribusinesses like Mriya based in Ternopil, and wind energy companies in sunny Crimea, wouldn’t have to be subject to rent-seeking practices in Kyiv, and instead could do business with local governments. In the end, Yanukovych and his party have shown they’re incapable of solving the nation’s problems. Its time to let Ukrainians have their say and elect their councils, mayors, and oblast governors.
