Election results
The results of the local elections established by the city election commission were both predictable and unexpected at the same time. According to the election results, 8 parties overcame the 3-percent barrier, and in 25 majoritarian electoral districts, the victors were nominees of 6 political forces.
In the multi-mandate electoral district for the Lutsk City Council, victory was won by the city organization of the VO "Batkivshchyna," which received 21.2% of the voters' votes and brought 8 deputies into the council on its electoral list. Actually, no one doubted the victory of this party. But the result obtained from the proportional component of the elections was surprising, because in 2006 the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc received as much as 37.8% in the city elections. Another surprise was the significant advantage of Y. Tymoshenko's party members in single-mandate electoral districts - out of 25 districts, VO "Batkivshchyna" candidates won in 16!!! Moreover, the majoritarian candidates were not always well-known and influential personalities; for example, in one of the districts, the office secretary of the city party organization celebrated victory. In fact, the majoritarian component of the elections saved VO "Batkivshchyna," since 2/3 of the faction's composition were elected precisely in majoritarian districts. Thus, the VO "Batkivshchyna" faction was formed with 24 deputies.
The second result under the proportional election system was obtained by VO "Svoboda" - 13.3%, which allowed it to bring 5 deputies on its list. Four more deputies were elected in majoritarian districts. In total, VO "Svoboda" has 9 deputies and the second-largest faction in the city council. I note that this is a significant success for this political force, since it gained representation in the Lutsk city council for the first time.
A certain surprise was the result of the Party of Regions, which gained the support of 7.5% of voters and took third place in the multi-mandate electoral district. That is, the PR increased the number of its voters, since in 2006, 4.66% of voters voted for it. In addition to the 3 deputies elected on the party list, one more majoritarian deputy joined, and thus the Party of Regions faction numbers 4 deputies.
A similar result in the city elections was obtained by "Front of Changes." The 7% of voters' votes gained allowed it to bring three deputies into the council. One more nominee of A. Yatsenyuk's party won in a majoritarian district. In total, the "Front of Changes" faction in the Lutsk City Council consists of 4 deputies.
The "Our Ukraine" faction significantly lost in numbers and influence. If in 2006 the "Our Ukraine" bloc received 19% of voters' votes and 11 mandates, then in 2010 the party independently received only 6.5% of votes and 2 deputy mandates. Moreover, none of the party's candidates was able to win in majoritarian districts.
The majoritarian election system allowed the "For Ukraine!" party to improve its electoral rating; with the former city mayor at the head of the list, it was able to receive only 4.4% of votes under the proportional component and accordingly 2 mandates. Instead, two more party nominees defeated their opponents in majoritarian districts. Due to this, 4 deputies joined the "For Ukraine!" faction.
A rather unexpectedly low result was obtained by the "Strong Ukraine" party, which can boast only 2 deputies in the Lutsk City Council. The party of S. Tihipko received one mandate based on the results of elections in the multi-mandate district, where "Strong Ukraine" received 3.9% of votes. The second deputy mandate was gained through the victory of the party's nominee in a majoritarian district.
Another surprise was the entry into the city council of the European Party of Ukraine, which with a result of 3.1% of votes gained one deputy mandate.
The results of the elections to the Lutsk City Council testified that voters, when voting for the city's elected representatives, whether on party lists or in majoritarian districts, were mostly guided by their political views and support for certain national politicians. In fact, the majority of Lutsk residents supported candidates of political forces oppositional to the national government.
Instead, a completely different picture emerged in the elections of the Lutsk city mayor. Here, Lutsk residents to a certain extent distanced themselves from political brands and elected themselves a "mayor" who was nominated by the unpopular "Strong Ukraine" party.
Thus, the new city mayor of Lutsk became Mykola Romaniuk, who received 32.8% of the voters' votes. He was followed by the VO "Batkivshchyna" nominee Anatolii Hrytsiuk (22.4%) and the city mayor at that time, who was running from the "For Ukraine!" party, Bohdan Shyba (10.2%).
Voters elected M. Romaniuk as city mayor based on the candidate's personal qualities and his image of non-conflict. At the same time, voters did not pay attention at all to the fact that he was a candidate from the current government, since he was supported by the head of the regional state administration and all city branches of the parliamentary majority parties.
As a result of the local elections, a situation developed where the two key bodies of Lutsk city self-government - the city council and the city mayor - turned out to be from politically opposite camps. This alone gave grounds to speak of complex mutual relations within the city government team.
Balance of forces in the council
Despite the fact that the local elections were held under a mixed electoral system, the political factor continues to play a determining role in the activities of the city council.
As in the previous composition of the city council, the largest is the VO "Batkivshchyna" faction. However, the fact that the faction is mainly formed from majoritarian deputies may significantly influence the faction's work in the future, because such deputies can always declare their separate opinion, different from the party's. The first example of such a scenario was the statement by city council deputy Anatolii Biriukov about his joining the European Party faction. Most likely, under appropriate political or personal circumstances, other deputies may act similarly. And the prerequisites for this already exist. For example, within the faction itself, there is a conflict between two conditional groups, supporters of the city and regional party leadership. Confirmation of this was the party's long hesitation regarding the candidacy for the position of head of the land commission and attempts to change the faction's leadership.
But so far, these isolated cases do not affect the overall work of the VO "Batkivshchyna" faction. And using its numerical advantage, the party puts forward its demands to other players - the city mayor and deputies from other political forces. At the first stage, this allowed it to elect its people to a number of leadership positions in the council, in particular: the leader of the city organization of VO "Batkivshchyna," Hryhorii Pustovit, was elected secretary of the Lutsk City Council, five faction members - as heads of permanent commissions of the city council, four deputies - as members of the permanent commission on land relations and land cadastre (whose total composition is 5 deputies). In addition, the faction achieved the adoption of the Rules of Procedure of the Lutsk City Council proposed in its version.
True, questions arise regarding the small representation of "Tymoshenkoites" in the composition of the Executive Committee of the Lutsk City Council. Of the 11 already approved members of the executive committee, only three can be attributed to the VO "Batkivshchyna" quota. And the ease with which the party allowed the city mayor to form a team of deputies is also surprising. Either the "mayor" promised something in return, or the "Tymoshenkoites" did not want to tie themselves to the work of the executive bodies of the city council so that at the first mistake they could begin criticizing the city mayor's actions.
It will be quite interesting to observe the activities of the VO "Svoboda" faction, for which participation in the work of the city council is a new stage of political activity. A certain diversity of the faction's composition is noticeable, in which ideologically seasoned party activists and recently recruited businessmen work together.
For this political force, there will probably be the most challenges. First, "Svoboda" members will need to prove that they are not only a Maidan-type party, but that there are also people in their ranks capable of bringing constructive results. Second, VO "Svoboda" representatives will need to pass the test of "copper pipes," which always happens for first-time elected deputies. Third, it will not be easy to keep within party discipline the activities of businessman deputies who previously did not show much interest in patriotic values. The first confirmation that at least one of the mentioned problems exists in the faction was the resignation of the deputy mandate by Viktor Shostak, elected on the VO "Svoboda" party list. In fact, it was the party that forced the politician to give up his deputyship.
VO "Svoboda" is trying to claim the role of an influential political force, and for this it is trying to negotiate cooperation with all key players. For example, when approving the composition and leadership of deputy commissions, "Svoboda" members gladly divided the "power pie" with the "Tymoshenkoites," as a result of which they received three positions of heads of permanent commissions of the city council, including the "budget" one. Instead, when approving the city mayor's deputies and the personal composition of the executive committee, VO "Svoboda" deputies reached a consensus with the city mayor - in exchange for supporting the candidacies of his deputies, they received a seat in the executive committee, which was taken by entrepreneur and regional council deputy Yevhen Melnyk.
At the moment, the faction's work is fully controlled by the leader of the regional party organization, regional council deputy Anatolii Vitiv, due to which the faction appears monolithic and disciplined.
Despite the fact that at the regional level and in a number of districts the Party of Regions with allies controls a significant number of local councils in the Volyn region, in the Lutsk City Council the "regionalists" actually have no influence on anything. And although they are considered allies of the city mayor, this so far gives them nothing.
Instead, the "Front of Changes" faction acts as a kind of "covering detachment" for the first deputy city mayor Sviatoslav Kravchuk, who heads the regional party organization. Deputies from this faction are also counted among the city mayor's partners, but given their small numbers, they can help him little. Therefore, "Front of Changes" deputies try to compensate for this with their active work outside the council, which manifests itself in frequent PR events: charitable activities, work of the public reception office, attending various programs and round tables.
Deputies of the "For Ukraine!" faction play the role of situational allies for larger factions, in particular VO "Batkivshchyna" and VO "Svoboda," especially when it comes to political issues. It was thanks to such cooperation that the "For Ukraine!" faction representative was elected head of the "youth" commission. On the other hand, the faction's deputies have normal relations with the city mayor as well. Therefore, the candidacy of the leader of the regional party organization, regional council deputy Ihor Huz, is being considered for the vacant seat of a member of the Executive Committee of the city council.
Instead, the "Our Ukraine" faction, both of whose deputies are quite experienced and active politicians, has very limited influence and opportunities in the council. And the position of head of the "education" commission of the city council actually went to NU deputy Anatolii Parkhomiuk for former merits (during the previous convocation of the council he worked as deputy city mayor), as well as for his readiness for cooperation.
Even less influence and generally no political or deputy experience do the deputies of the "Strong Ukraine" party have. Therefore, this faction acts more in the role of extras. True, the vice-premier's party members can count on the loyal attitude of the city mayor, whose party nominated him for the position.
A rather active "lone warrior in the field" turned out to be the only deputy from the European Party of Ukraine, Olena Holieva, who in this short period has already managed to promote herself in local media as a defender of small entrepreneur-carriers. True, she did this not without her own benefit, since she herself has a business interest in tenders for the distribution of routes for public transport.
Thus, with all this palette of party brands and bright personalities, there is no clear structurization in the Lutsk City Council. On the one hand, VO "Batkivshchyna" has a numerical advantage. But the faction itself is quite heterogeneous and sometimes cannot reach an understanding. On the other hand, VO "Svoboda," which is more interested in political issues related to national-patriotic themes and which so far has not shown itself in any way in matters of economics and municipal economy. Smaller factions, such as "Front of Changes," "For Ukraine," "Our Ukraine," often have their own separate opinion on a number of issues, but are forced to negotiate with "senior" partners in order to at least sometimes receive support for their initiatives. Instead, the factions of the Party of Regions and Strong Ukraine are so far conducting quiet deputy work without overly advertising their plans and proposals. The enlarged faction of the European Party of Ukraine conducts active informational activity for each of its steps, which, however, does not at all mean equally active routine deputy work.
Today it is impossible to clearly determine who controls the council - the largest faction or the city mayor. Currently, before each important decision, consultations and negotiations take place, which determine the voting results. Actually, this is probably why the developers of the council's Rules of Procedure proposed creating a collegium, which is a coordinating council of representatives of deputy factions.
Overall, the impression is that the deputy composition of the council gave a certain "carte blanche" to the city mayor, thanks to which Mykola Romaniuk managed to form his team of deputies and carry out the reorganization of the council's executive bodies in his own way. All factions to a greater or lesser extent support the "mayor's" proposals while not forgetting to bargain for themselves certain personnel preferences during the formation of the council's Executive Committee and the appointment of heads of reorganized departments.
On the other hand, the fragmentation of deputies and low consolidation of factions give the city mayor Mykola Romaniuk the opportunity to conduct "separate" negotiations with individual deputies and at the expense of this solve his tactical goals.
The city mayor himself is so far only getting used to the new role of manager for him. Therefore, in many matters he is dependent on the opinion of his deputies and advisers who are more experienced in matters of city management, and also very often listens to the advice of the head of the regional state administration Borys Klimchuk. Mykola Romaniuk's attempt to create his own team at the new workplace by attracting people with whom he has already worked is also noticeable, although he still does not have enough human resources to cover all areas of the city council's work.
Preliminary results of work
If we evaluate the results of the city council's work over the first two months, the dominance of precisely political issues is clearly visible. Deputies are still continuing the election campaign and remain overly politicized, acting in the wake of their national leaders.
The palm of primacy in initiating such issues undoubtedly belongs to the political forces oppositional to the government at the national level - VO "Batkivshchyna" and VO "Svoboda." It was on their initiative that deputies have already repeatedly adopted various statements and appeals to state bodies of Ukraine (the President, the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers). Among them: an appeal regarding the adoption of the Tax Code, regarding the next anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933, regarding bringing to criminal liability the deputies who committed a fight within the walls of the Verkhovna Rada, regarding political repressions against Yulia Tymoshenko and other opposition politicians, regarding court decisions on the cancellation of the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On conferring the title of Hero of Ukraine on S. Bandera." The latter decision was adopted at a specially convened extraordinary session of the city council. Also, the deputies conferred the title of "Honorary Citizen of Lutsk" on the leader of Ukrainian nationalists, Stepan Bandera.
In addition to political issues, the deputies did not forget about necessary organizational and personnel issues, such as: election of the city council secretary, creation of permanent commissions and approval of their personal composition, approval of city mayor's deputies, creation of the executive committee of the city council and approval of its personal composition, approval of the Rules of Procedure of the Lutsk City Council of the sixth convocation, approval of the Regulation on permanent commissions and the Regulation on the assistant-consultant of a city council deputy, approval of the structure of the council's executive bodies, the total number of the council's apparatus and its executive bodies.
In matters of city management and resolving acute socio-economic issues of the community, the deputies' achievements are much smaller. Among the economic issues that deputies managed to consider at the first sessions of the council, it is worth noting only the approval of the Comprehensive City Program of Social Protection of the Population for 2011-2015 and the Program of Economic and Social Development of the City of Lutsk for 2011, as well as the approval of the budget of the city of Lutsk for 2011. And even these issues were prepared during the previous term, and therefore attributing them to the merits of the sixth convocation deputies can be done with a stretch.
The deputies are also not very active so far in voicing their inquiries. So far, the most frequently raised issues have been classic ones: repair of road surfaces and improvement of road safety in the city, installation of road signs and traffic lights, timely snow removal from the city, installation of storm drainage grates, roof repairs.
Conclusions
The Lutsk City Council is still at the stage of its formation - relations are being established and agreements are being reached, negotiations and bargaining continue, personnel appointments are being divided. Therefore, the normal routine work of the council will begin no earlier than spring. This will be preceded by the completion of the personnel formation of the council's executive structures (completion of the council's Executive Committee and appointment of heads of all structural departments) and the settlement of inter-factional relations (completion of negotiations and resolution of conflicts between key faction deputies, distribution of roles in commissions). In fact, the first hundred days of the new council for Lutsk will be unproductive.
The issues that, in addition to the above-mentioned, may cause discussions and disputes in the council include resolving the fate of Lutsk's communal enterprises. First of all, this concerns the future of the Lutsk electric transport enterprise, which the city mayor's team wants to divide into two separate enterprises (bus and trolleybus), as well as the investment-attractive KP "Lutskteplo" and "Lutskvodokanal," which are being prepared for privatization.
The divergence of positions between the city mayor, who seeks to give over to privatization or liquidate unprofitable communal enterprises, and deputies from VO "Batkivshchyna," who are more inclined to preserve these enterprises in the ownership of the city community, may lead to serious contradictions. It is then that the real state of affairs will become apparent, namely who really has more influence in the city council.
It will also become visible whether the city mayor is capable of resolving truly conflictual issues, how strong party discipline is in the VO "Batkivshchyna" faction, what views on the development of the city's communal enterprises "Svoboda" members have, and to whom the smaller factions of the council are more inclined in cooperation.
Mykhailo Shelep, regional representative of the GM OPORA in the Volyn region mike.shelep@gmail.com, 067-4165086
For reference: Monitoring of the work of the Lutsk City Council and the city mayor is carried out within the framework of the GM OPORA project on public democratic monitoring of newly elected local self-government bodies in 15 communities of the country.
