Former Ukrainian Member of Parliament and ex-delegate from Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Boryslav Bereza has announced he will run for the post of Kyiv mayor.
"Yes, I've made the final decision and will run for the post of Kyiv mayor, while my EcoParty team will run for Kyiv City Council," he said on Facebook on August 12.
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"I'm tired of asking myself the same questions: Why doesn't my favorite city look like Budapest, Bruges, Strasbourg, or Vienna? Why do these cities have good roads, well-functioning infrastructure, preserved historical monuments and flows of tourists? Instead, we have only illegal and chaotic development, destruction of green areas, clogging and air pollution, bad roads and huge traffic jams?" he said.
According to Bereza, "random people" have ruled Kyiv for many years without a strategy for the development of the capital city.
"The choice between old and new corrupt officials cannot be correct. We all need an alternative. And such an alternative should be people who care about Kyiv's problems rather than party ratings or inter-party deals," he added.
Kyiv mayoral elections
- The Central Election Commission has officially scheduled the 2020 local elections in Ukraine for October 25.
- Popular Ukrainian TV host and stand-up comic Serhiy Prytula, who has won praise among many for his efforts to raise money for the military repelling Russian aggression, announced on August 11 he would be running for the post of Kyiv mayor with the Holos (Voice) Party.
- On July 16, MP Iryna Vereshchuk won the Servant of the People's intra-party primaries. She will be the candidate from the Servant of the People Party during the mayoral elections in Kyiv.
- Former lawmaker and ex-mayor of Kharkov Mykhailo Dobkin could also run for the post of mayor of Kyiv. In July, he released a promo video in support of his future campaigning.
- The Batkivshchyna Party will nominate incumbent Member of Parliament Oleksiy Kucherenko as its candidate for mayor of Kyiv.
- The country's Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko announced he would not take part in the mayoral elections in Kyiv.
