People’s Deputies and Their Success Stories in Running for Local Elections

57 people’s deputies were running for local councils on different levels, and also for mayoral positions. Thereat, the deputy group “For the Future” were running for candidacy almost at full strength, when 20 out of 24 members were struggling for the mandate at local elections. 

Since elections have finished in most hromadas, it can be concluded that for many MPs the story turned successful, but 9 people’s deputies failed to gain the mandates at local elections. They are Volodymyr Kreydenko, Anton Poliakov, Tetiana Riabukha, Oleksandr Ustinov, Yaroslav Rushchyshyn, Oleh Syniutka, Iryna Vereshchuk, Serhiy Shakhov, and Serhiy Rudyk. 

City mayors

The least successful was the race for the mayoral seats. Out of 15 candidates, three of them have been eventually elected as city mayors: Zinoviy Andriyovych (Nadvirna), Ruslan Trebushkin (Pokrovsk), and Ihor Kolykhayev (Kherson). However, the latter also had to run for the second round on November, 15.

Other 12 people’s deputies failed in their electoral race. Thus, as little as two of them managed to get through to the “second round”: Oleh Syniutka (Lviv) and Mykola Skoryk (Odesa). Two more candidates also gained the second position but lost back in the “first round”: Mykola Babenko (Bila Tserkva) and Olekdsandr Feldman (Kharkiv). The third position went to Tetiana Riabukha at the elections of Sumy city mayor, the fourth position was taken by Yaroslav Rushchyshyn (Lviv) and Oleksiy Kucherenko (Kyiv), the fifth position went to Iryna Vereshchuk (Kyiv) and Oleksandra Ustinova (Vinnytsia).

The candidacy turned most failing for Anton Poliakov (Chernihiv) – 6th position, and 2.66% votes; Volodymyr Kreydenko (Melitopol) is on the 7th position with 1.67% of votes, and Serhiy Shakhov (Kyiv) who only got 0.22% of votes and stayed on position 17.

It shall be noted that four of the above-mentioned people’s deputies were successful in gaining the mandates in the respective local councils, as they were on top of their party lists: Mykola Babenko, Oleksiy Kucherenko, Mykola Skoryk, and Oleksandr Feldman.

Local Councils

Running for regional, district, and city councils turned highly successful for people’s deputies, since as few as two candidates failed to get to local councils. Thus, Serhiy Rudyk, a leader on the same-name party list “Serhiy Rudyk Team. TIME FOR CHANGE!" failed to become a deputy at Cherkasy Oblast Council and Cherkasy City Council. Serhiy Shakhov who was running for the Kyiv mayoral seat failed to become the city council deputy from the “Nash Kray” party.

Other people’s deputies made it through to local councils. After all, in addition to personal visibility, they had enough time for their PR campaign. In the heat of election campaign, in October, 2020, Verkhovna Rada  convened for only 1 plenary session. That is why people’s deputies could easily focus on the campaigning itself.

Moreover, in case of running for city and district councils, all incumbent people’s deputies were nominated as top candidates on the electoral lists. For regional councils, the level was 86%. Thus, most people’s deputies who were nominated as candidates were mentioned as leaders of political forces on the ballot paper. Therefore, they had virtually 100% chance to be elected. However, what about the MPs who were running for the deputy mandate in territorial constituencies?

Four peoples’ deputies were running to Volyn regional council. They all managed to easily gain the necessary share of the electoral quota (over 25%) to get a deputy mandate: Ihor Huz (“For the Future” group) – 161.73% of electoral quota (7,645 votes), Iryna Kostankevych (“For the Future” group) – 117.75% (5,566 votes), Vyacheslav Rubliov (“Servant of the People”) – 87.1% (4,117 votes), and Stepan Ivakhiv (“For the Future” group) – 56.17% (2,655 votes). Overall, the people’s deputies gained 20.2% of all the votes received by the “For the Future” party at elections to Volyn regional council.

At the same time, Yaroslav Dubnevych (“For the Future” group) running to Lviv regional council also became a deputy of the respective council, and gained 4,286 votes and 48.53% of electoral quota.

The only people’s deputy running under the territorial constituency who gained under 25% of electoral quota was Serhiy Koleboshyn (“Servant of the People”). He was running for the Odesa regional council and gained only 360 votes (5.52% of electoral quota). However, he managed to become the regional council deputy as he was No2 in the only party list.