Yet another mayor of a Ukrainian city has died from COVID-19 just days after he likely won re-election in Ukraine’s local elections on Oct. 25.
Oleg Bondarenko, the incumbent mayor of Novgorod-Siversky, succumbed to pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus on Oct. 29, the Suspilne TV channel reported. He was 47.
The previous night, Bondarenko was hospitalized in serious condition and diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. He was eventually placed on a ventilator because 80% of his lungs were damaged.
The results of the Oct. 25 election have not yet been fully counted and announced, but Bondarenko led in the polls and was expected to secure re-election. The local politician first became mayor of Novgorod-Siversky, a small city of 13,000 residents located 300 kilometers to the northeast of Kyiv in Chernihiv Oblast, in 2015.
Bondarenko is the second incumbent Ukrainian mayor to die from COVID-19 just days after likely winning re-election in the Oct. 25 vote.
Earlier, on Oct. 28, Boryspil Mayor Anatoliy Fedorchuk died of coronavirus complications after being hospitalized with his wife. Fedorchuk had been Boryspil’s mayor since 2006 and was also re-elected on Oct. 25, according to preliminary results reported by Olga Aivasovska, chairman of OPORA election nonprofit.
Read more: Boryspil mayor dies from COVID-19 during re-election bid with coronavirus-denying party
According to articles 280 and 231 of the Electoral Code of Ukraine, a territorial election commission can annul mayoral elections and schedule another vote should one of the candidates die.
Both Novgorod-Siversky and Boryspil will need to hold new elections, Aivazovska said in interviews with the RBK-Ukraine and Ukraine 24 news outlets.
