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PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN UKRAINE

Opposition branch calls on supporters to disavow both Poroshenko and Zelensky

The Ukrainian presidential runoff is scheduled for April 21

© AP Photo/Sergei Grits

KIEV, April 3. /TASS/. The Opposition Bloc Party for Peace and Development that nominated Alexander Vilkul to vie for the presidency has called on their supporters to reject both Servant of the People party’s candidate Vladimir Zelensky and incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko in the run-off, the political party’s press service announced.

"The result is that the run-off will not feature backers of peace and economic revival, but rather be contested by a representative of the "party of war" and a blatant populist. <…> The most decent thing to do is to call on our voters to support neither of the candidates," the statement reads.

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"Given the current situation, we simply cannot ask to support incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko, as we believe that his presidency has created a breakdown of the public administration system, and an era of lies and hypocrisy in politics. Poroshenko is precisely the one to lay the blame for the war and devastation, the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, persecution of the canonical church, the regime of fear and violence, rampant political thuggery and the country’s loss of all elements of agency," the press service points out.

It also notes that the party believes it is impossible to support Zelensky, whose statements run contrary to its fundamental positions. "The lack of a coherent election program and administrative experience, along with the political eclecticism and populism of Zelensky are the reasons we are calling on our voters to reject his candidacy and not vote for a "pig in a poke"," the party statement stresses.

Alexander Vilkul lost his bid for the presidency in the first round of the race and on Tuesday said that Ukraine was facing the most difficult choice rebuking the two candidates contending for the top position. He also said that his campaign was based a clear and coherent program that would be used for the autumn parliamentary elections.

Opposition Bloc split

In autumn 2018, the Opposition Bloc party management proposed to unite the Ukrainian opposition forces ahead of the presidential elections. However, a number of party members, the so-called Donetsk group guided by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, began protracting the unification talks under various pretexts. Fellow party members of Yuri Boyko, the leader of the Opposition Bloc in the Parliament accused the group of accommodating the ruling party’s interests and countering the opposition unification.

These differences led to a split of the Opposition Bloc party. On November 9, Yuri Boyko and For Life party leader Vadim Rabinovich signed an agreement to establish Opposition Platform - For Life party to contest the upcoming presidential elections in 2019. Yuri Boyko was nominated as a presidential candidate representing the unified opposition forces.

The other half of the Opposition Bloc nominated Alexander Vilkul for the race.

According to the results of the first round, Yuri Boyko racked up 11.68% of the votes (fourth place - TASS), while Alexander Vilkul finished eighth with 4.15% of the votes. Opposition Platform - For Life Member of Parliament Nestor Shufrych said that these results show that Pyotr Poroshenko owes his place in the run-off to Alexander Vilkul. Shufrych pointed out that had Vilkul backed Boyko as the most popular opposition candidate Boyko would have finished second to contest the presidency in the second round leaving Poroshenko behind.

Last Sunday, Ukraine voted in the first round of the presidential elections. With 99.88% of the votes tallied up, the runoff will feature Zelensky with 30.23% of the votes and Poroshenko who enjoyed the support of 15.95% of the voters.

The leader of the Batkivshchyna party, Yulia Timoshenko, finished third with 13.39% of the votes.

The Ukrainian presidential runoff is scheduled for April 21.

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