Page 58 - BNE_magazine_06_2019

58 Opinion
bne June 2019
Volodymyr Zelenskiy won 73% of the vote in the recent elections in Ukraine as he was the "lesser of the two evils." COLCHIS:
Zelenskiy faces tough choices amidst high expectations
Maryna Vorotnyuk of the Eurasia Democratic Security Network
On April 21, Ukraine held the second round of presidential elections where Ukrainian citizens had
to choose between the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko and the popular comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskiy. With 73 percent of the vote, Zelenskiy secured a landslide victory across an absolute majority of Ukrainian regions. Zelenskiy is widely believed to reflect the voices of so-called “protest voters” – those who are dissatisfied with the way the state, from the economy to the public sector, is performing. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose political and ideological preferences remained intentionally vague, rode in on a wave of public dissatisfaction with incumbent President Petro Poroshenko. He offered himself as an anti-system alternative – honest and unstained by political experience. Although he is allegedly supported by powerful Ukrainian oligarch and Poroshenko’s arch-rival Igor Kolomoisky, Ukrainian voters obviously believed that Zelenskiy was the lesser of two evils.
To understand this political choice, one has to look at the political and social fabric of Ukrainian society. Five years after the events of Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, and the
www.bne.eu
onset of the Russia-supported war in Donbas, Ukraine is on the thorny path of reforms, trying to balance its wartime needs with democratic development. Poroshenko was given carte blanche at the time to reform the system and to completely reset Ukrainian politics. In some areas, his performance was
“Poroshenko was given carte blanche at the time to reform the system
and to completely reset Ukrainian politics”
promising or outstanding, given the dire conditions of the Ukrainian state at war; in others, results were minimal – as in the oft-discussed failure of anti-corruption reforms.
Poroshenko’s electoral slogan “Army, language, and faith” was based on the presumed state building achievements under his tenure. Firstly, in five years the Ukrainian