Sign-in for resignation of city mayor begins in Kiev

Representatives of Kiev’s territorial community have launched a sign-in campaign for an early termination of office by Mayor Vitaly Klichko, Kommentarii publication said on Thursday.

“A demand for an early termination of the mayor’s powers came from 428 members of the territorial community in Kiev,” the report said.

Leaders of large public associations including Andrei Karpenko of the Community Power association, Lalita Kartoziya of the Labor Union organization, Sergei Dorotich of the Union for Protection of Business, Mikhail Kruglyak of the Brotherhood association, and another 82 public activists expressed no-confidence in Klichko at a meeting of the steering committee of the campaign.

At the initial stage, the initiators of the move face the task of collecting 393,000 signatures. After that they will be able to send sign-in lists and an appropriate petition to the Kiev territorial election commission.

At present, an early termination of powers at the voters’ initiative offers the only legitimate opportunity for removing Klichko from the Mayor’s office.

“If the developments really take this course, election of a new mayor of Kiev may take place before the end of this year,” Kommentarii said.

Andrei Karpenko, a representative of the steering committee said the activists had put forward their demands in the wake of Klichko’s inappropriate performance as mayor. According to Karpenko, the former boxing star runs the city along the principle “if time is still left” and shows indifference towards the problems the city is grappling with or the opinion of the local community.

Klichko, a famous boxer and the leader of UDAR party was elected Mayor of Kiev on May 25, 2014 for the first time. He enjoyed support of the Pyotr Poroshenko bloc.

In exchange for this support, he withheld his aspirations to run for presidency. On October 25, 2015, he was re-elected to the mayor’s office.