Presidential fever in Ukraine: Chocolate king, ex-Prime Minister, Darth Vader to run for office


Ukraine’s Central Election Commission has registered several presidential candidates.

7 persons of 24 are formally permitted to run for the presidency:

Mikhail Dobkin (ex-governor of Kharkiv, representative of the Party of Regions, who is under house arrest at the moment)

Serhiy Tihipko (one of the leaders of pro-Yanukovych’s Party of Regions)

Vadim Rabinovich (President of All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress

Yury Boyko (former Deputy Prime Minister)

Renat Kuzmin (former Deputy Prosecutor General)

Valery Konovalyuk (MP, ex-presidential adviser)

Volodimir Saran (businessman, at-large candidate)

Yuliya Tsimoshenko, ex-Prime Minister and political prisoner, and chocolate king Petro Poroshenko are not on the list yet. It is the tycoon and benefactor Petro Poroshenko who has a strong lead in the presidential race. Vitaly Klitscko, the UDAR party leader and a former professional boxer, has withdrawn in favour of Mr Poroshenko and announced he would run for Mayor of Kyiv.

The Central Election Commition is to consider other contenders’ applications by April, 4. Oleh Tiahnybok (far-right Svoboda party), communist Petro Simonenko, Mykola Malomuzh (ex-head of the external intelligece service), Maidan activists Olga Bohomolets and Zoryan Shkiryako, even a man named Darth Vader (Internet Party of Ukraine) and 18 persons expressed their intention to participate in the presidential race.

The early presidential elections are to be held on May, 25.

www.belsat.eu/en

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