​Servant of the People performs poorly at local elections, predictably

UKRAINE - In Brief 26 Oct 2020 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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Local elections, held on October 25th, brought no surprise. The ruling party Servant of the People lost this voting across the board. Zelenskiy and his party failed to win any big city of Ukraine. And as of now we can report only five mid-level towns where candidates from the Servant of the People took second place at the mayor’s race and will participate in the second round of elections. Even in the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Kryvy Rih his candidate finished the first round on second place and we have doubts on his chances to win eventually. Participation rate in elections was only 37% - the lowest in the history. Many Ukrainians report disappointment. They claim they voted for Zelenskiy and his political force to reload the vertical of power. Zelenskiy kicked out old elites… but nothing changed in the country. That was among the key reasons why people ignored local elections this time. Why they should vote if nothing changes? Zelenskiy tried to address this problem of people’s sluggishness with one of his usual tricks. Few days before elections he announced 5 questions he wants to ask people at the voting stations. The questions were the following: Do you support lifelong imprisonment for largescale corruption?Do you support free economic zone at the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblast?Do you support reduction of number of MPs down to 300 MPs (450 MPs currently)?Do you support legalization of cannabis for medical purposes - to reduce pain of critically ill patients?Do you support Ukraine's right to use the security guarantees set out in the Budapest Memorandum to restore its state sovereignty and territorial integrity? Despite this kind of referen...