The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has refused to support a bill on calling early elections of deputies of Kyiv City Council and Kyiv mayor, tabled in by representatives of the opposition BYuT-Batkivshchyna faction.
On April 4, Vice Speaker Mykola Tomenko said that his faction was going to initiate the calling by the parliament of extraordinary elections of those who “was plundering Kyiv”.
Last week, chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov called for the replacement of the leadership of Kyiv City Council and the formation of a new constructive majority.
Popov said that from late 2007 to July 2010, there were multi-billion hryvnia scams with land and public property in Kyiv, on which a number of Kyiv City Council deputies received profit.
He said that constructive cooperation should be maintained between Kyiv City Council deputies and the executive authorities. “I am confident that such cooperation will be possible only if we replace the leadership of Kyiv City Council and form a new constructive majority,” Popov said.
Kyiv City Council currently includes 120 deputies representing nine factions: the Bloc of Leonid Chernovetsky, the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, Udar, the People’s Party, the Civil Activists of Kyiv, the Party of Regions, the Bloc of Mykola Katerynchuk, City Reform, and the Republic of Kyiv.
In early March, Popov seemed to be more loyal towards the odious capital’s mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, whom deputies of Kyiv City Council have last seen [and after a long absence] at a session in late February.
According to recent opinion polls, 88.8% of Kyiv residents want that Chernovetsky resigned, with four out of five residents of the capital (79.4%) considering it expedient to hold early elections of Kyiv City Council and city chairman.
