Kiev local election, 2014

Background

Secretary of the Kiev City Council Halyna Hereha has been acting mayor since Leonid Chernovetsky resigned as the Mayor of Kiev on 1 June 2012. Hereha asked the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) to issue an instruction on holding an early mayoral election on 19 July 2012; the parliament has not considered this issue yet. On 7 March 2013 the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building and Local Government recommended that parliament should schedule the elections of the Mayor of Kiev and members of the Kiev City Council for 2 June 2013. On 2 April 2013 the Verkhovna Rada failed to set any date for the elections because the Party of Regions faction wanted to wait for a ruling from the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on "whether regular elections to local government agencies can be held at different time intervals, rather than simultaneously". The Constitutional Court started considering this case on 11 April 2013. On 29 May 2013 the Constitutional Court set the date of the election as 25 October 2015. The court reasoned that amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine that came into force on 1 February 2011 stipulated that "the next local elections should be held simultaneously all over Ukraine on the last Sunday of October 2015."

The oppositional parties after the 2012 parliamentary election considered the City Council term of authority expired by July 2013 and effectively blocked attempts at its convening through mass protest in July 2013.

As of 7 March 2013 possible candidates for the post of the Mayor of Kiev were Vitali Klitschko (UDAR), Andriy Illyenko (Svoboda), Petro Poroshenko (independent candidate) and Oleh Liashko (Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko).

Oleksandr Popov of Party of Regions and former Head of Kiev City Administration stated in February 2013 that he was a candidate. On 14 December 2013 President Viktor Yanukovych suspended him as Head of the Kiev City State Administration. The same day the General Prosecutor of Ukraine's Office handed "a notification on suspicion of abuse of power when ordering the Euromaidan police actions of 30 November 2013" to Popov. On 25 April 2014 the Party of Regions announced that they would not put forward a candidate for the elections.

The Verkhovna Rada set a date for the elections on 25 February 2014, just after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. However, it was later decided that date should be 25 May 2014, the same day as the Ukrainian presidential election.

City Council election

35 parties took part in these elections. 10 parties won seats. Those seats were won in 60 majority constituencies and another 60 on party lists. Several parties, among them Party of Regions, disappeared from the local parliament.

Registered mayoral candidates

Mayoral candidates were able to nominate themselves from 23 April 2014 until 30 April 2014. 19 candidates competed for the post.

Yuriy Lutsenko expressed an interest in taking part in the election, but later withdrew. Also potential candidates were Yuriy Levchenko, Ihor Lutsenko, and Volodymyr Makeyenko.

Lesya Orobets and Ivan Saliy were withdrawn from the race on 13 May, but later they were restored as candidates on 16 May.

Mayor of Kiev

According to a telephone poll conducted prior to the election by Sociological group "RATING" from 25 February to 6 March 2013, about 55% of the eligible voters would go to polling stations, and 31% of them would vote in the mayoral elections for Klitschko, 20.3% for Popov, and 7% for Poroshenko (all of them possible candidates). This poll also showed that if Klitschko and Popov would proceeded to a hypothetical second round 60.4% (of the respondents determined to vote) would cast their ballots for Klitschko and 26.5% for Popov. A June 2013 poll by GfK Ukraine gave Klitschko 32.7%, Popov 15.9% and Poroshenko 11.9%; 12.8% would ignore the election if Klitschko would not run for mayor.

A poll conducted from 22–28 March 2014 by "RATING" showed that out of the potential candidates at the time, Mykola Katerynchuk was the most popular among voters – 12% of those who intended to vote would cast their ballots for him. The poll gave 11% to Anatoliy Hrytsenko, 8% to Oleh Lyashko, 8% to Volodymyr Bondarenko, 8% to Yuriy Lutsenko, 5% to Volodymyr Makeyenko, 4% to Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, 4% to Lesya Orobets, 3% to Andriy Illyenko, 2% to Tetiana Montian and 1% to I. Lutsenko. It should be noted that the relevance of this poll is limited as at the time, Klitschko was not among the potential candidates for mayor, and several of the potential candidates then went on to register as candidates for the 2014 presidential election.

Kiev City Council

According to a poll conducted by Razumkov Center from 11 to 17 April 2014 (of the voters who had already determined their choice), 42.1% would vote for UDAR, 15.4% for Fatherland, 9.7% for Svoboda, 8.2% for Solidarity, 6.4% for European Party of Ukraine, 3.8% for Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko, 3.1% for Civil Position; Right Sector was close to the 3% barrier, since it had the support of 2.8% of those polled.