You're reading: Registration ends with record 28 presidential candidates

The registration of candidates for the March 31 presidential election ended. Feb. 3 was the last day for application.

Twenty-eight candidates for Ukraine’s presidency have been registered so far. It tops the previous record of the 2004 presidential election, which saw 26 candidates, two of which then dropped out.

But the final number of candidates is set to be even higher since the Central Election Commission is still processing several of the last-day registrants, including the incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

The total of 89 people applied.

An applicant can be rejected if he or she doesn’t provide the right documents or don’t fit the criteria for a presidential candidate: if they’re younger than 35-years-old, don’t speak Ukrainian, or didn’t live in Ukraine for the past 10 years. The applicants are also required to pay Hr 2.5 million ($90,000) registration fee.

The commission has to make a decision on whether to register each candidate within five days of receiving his or her application.

Seventeen people applied on the last day of registration, which started on Dec. 31, 2018. This includes Poroshenko, who has been leading a self-promotion campaign for several months but only announced his bid for re-election on Jan. 29. Poroshenko is running as a self-nominated candidate.

Another last-day submission came from Dmytro Gnap, an investigative reporter nominated by the Syla Lyudey (Power of the People) party. Gnap crowdfunded the Hr 2.5 million ($90,000) registration fee.

Another last-minute applicant was Nadiya Savchenko, who is in jail awaiting trial on terrorism charges. She has applied for candidacy through her sister, but refused to pay the Hr 2.5 million fee, saying that this requirement isn’t in the Ukrainian Constitution.

So far, the Central Election Commission has denied registration to 22 people. This includes Petro Symonenko, the long-time leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, who was denied registration because the name and symbols of his party were outlawed in Ukraine by legislation passed in April of 2015.

Another veteran politician who applied for candidacy on Jan. 31 but hasn’t yet been approved is Roman Bezsmertnyi, who is running as a self-nominated candidate.

A lawmaker Viktor Bondar also applied for candidacy and is awaiting approval. Bondar is the head of the Vidrodzhennia Party faction, which has 24 people parliament. Bondar is a former governor of Dnipro Oblast and a former member of the Party of Regions, which ceased to exist after its leader, the disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine in early 2014 amid a popular uprising.

The first round of presidential elections in Ukraine will take place on March 31, with a possible runoff on April 21.

Here are all the candidates registered as of now:

  1. Gennadiy Balashov (nominated by the 5.10 party), a businessman running the minor Party 5.10 whose main agenda is a radical simplification of taxes and which won 0.4 percent in the parliamentary election in 2014;
  2. Olga Bogomolets (self-nominated), a lawmaker and the owner of a private medical clinic, who came eighth in 2014 election with 1.9 percent of the vote;
  3. Inna Bohoslovska (self-nominated), a former top member of disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions who switched sides during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013–2014 and quit active politics, appearing instead as a commentator on TV;
  4. Yuriy Boyko (nominated by the Opposition Bloc – Za Zhittya party), a lawmaker and former energy minister in the government of runaway former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych;
  5. Oleksandr Danyliuk (self-nominated), an activist and briefly an advisor to defense minister Valeriy Geletey in 2014;
  6. Yuriy Derevyanenko, nominated by Volya (Freedom) party;
  7. Dmytro Dobrodomov (nominated by People’s Movement Civilian Control), a lawmaker;
  8. Mykola Gaber (self-nominated), head of the Patriotic Party of Ukraine;
  9. Anatoly Grytsenko (nominated by the Civil Position party), the head of the Civil Position party and ex-defense minister;
  10. Serhiy Kaplin (nominated by the Social-Democratic Party), lawmaker who heads the Social-Democrat Party and is known for his populist stance;
  11. Illya Kiva (nominated by the Socialist Party of Ukraine), a scandalous former police official and advisor to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov;
  12. Arkady Kornatsky (self-nominated), an independent lawmaker and owner of a farming business;
  13. Ruslan Koshulynsky (nominated by the right-wing Svoboda party), a single candidate backed by several nationalist parties;
  14. Vitaliy Kupriy (self-nominated), independent lawmaker;
  15. Oleg Lyashko (nominated by the Radical Party), a populist lawmaker who came third in the 2014 election with 8 percent of the votes;
  16. Oleksandr Moroz (nominated by the Socialist Party of Oleksandr Moroz), a veteran of Ukrainian politics and former speaker of the parliament;
  17. Yevhen Murayev (nominated by the Nashi party), lawmaker and ex-member of the Opposition Bloc and former NewsOne TV channel owner;
  18. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko (nominated by Spravedlyvist party), a former diplomat who ran the Security Service of Ukraine in 2014–2015;
  19. Roman Nasirov (self-nominated), the former head of the Fiscal Service and currently a defendant in a major corruption case;
  20. Andriy Sadoviy (nominated by the Samopomich party), the mayor of Lviv and head of the Samopomich party that has 25 seats in parliament;
  21. Ihor Shevchenko (self-nominated), a lawyer who served as ecology minister in 2014–2015 and had to leave after being accused of accepting a bribe from the scandalous businessman Oleksandr Onyshchenko in the form of a ride on a private jet;
  22. Oleksandr Shevchenko (nominated by the Ukrop party), the director of Bukovel ski resort, representing Ukrop, a party backed by the resort’s owner, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky;
  23. Vitaly Skotsyk (self-nominated), a former head of the Agrarian Party of Ukraine;
  24. Ihor Smeshko (self-nominated), ex-head of the Security Service of Ukraine in 2003–2005;
  25. Serhiy Taruta (nominated by the Osnova political party), a lawmaker and businessman;
  26. Yulia Tymoshenko (nominated by the Batkivshchyna party), leader of the Batkivshchyna party, Prime Minister in 2005, 2007-2010; finished second in 2014 Presidential election;
  27. Oleksandr Vilkul (nominated by Opposition Bloc — Party of Peace and Development), a lawmaker with the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc and a former top official of the Yanukovych government;
  28. Volodymyr Zelenskiy (nominated by the Servant of the People party), an actor who announced that he will run for president on Dec. 31 and is leading the polls.