War heroes and activists to shape new-look Ukraine parliament

Reuters — Out will go the bodyguards and mistresses, in are likely to come the street activists and war veterans: Ukraine’s next parliament will be pro-Western and strongly nationalist, and it won’t be to Russia’s liking.
Candidate lists for the Oct. 26 elections show how personal favorites backed by old school powerbrokers in the outgoing parliament are set to make way for people who made their names in Kiev’s «Maidan» revolution last winter, or in resisting Russian encroachment in eastern Ukraine.
Army pilot Nadia Savchenko is top candidate for one of Ukraine’s biggest parties — even though she is being held in a Moscow psychiatric clinic, accused of involvement in the deaths of Russian journalists.
Airforce colonel Yuly Mamchur — who became an instant hero in March when he defied pro-Russian forces by refusing to leave his post in Crimea — is running for the bloc of President Petro Poroshenko and is set to win a seat on Sunday.
The battered face of Tetyana Chornovil, an activist beaten by thugs of the ousted ruling elite, made her a Maidan icon. Already a war widow at 35, she is a candidate for Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk’s party.
With many outgoing deputies in the pay of business oligarchs, the old 450-seat parliament was a market place for deals to be cut rather than voters’ interests to be defended. This may be about to change.
«We shan’t be seeing any more bodyguards and mistresses in the new parliament. We will see people with a military background, though they will not have political and juridical knowledge,» said political analyst Mikhailo Pogrebinsky.
The make-up of the new assembly will reflect months of war and a confrontation with Russia that has created a Cold War-style crisis between Moscow and the West around Ukraine and redrawn its political landscape.
The Maidan revolution drove out Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February. Kremlin alarm at his ousting and the prospect of a pronounced shift westwards by Kiev led to Russia annexing Crimea in March and provoked pro-Moscow separatist rebellions in Ukraine’s east.
The loss of Crimea and prevention of normal voting in the east, where violence persists despite a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and the rebels, will mean the number of seats occupied in the new parliament will shrink to 424, according to central election authorities. The others — and Savchenko’s if as expected she is elected — will remain vacant.
Commentators expect a strong pro-Europe majority to emerge. «At least half of parliament, at the very least, will be changed now. There will be utterly different party structure in parliament,» said Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta think-tank. «The absolute majority will be with those political forces linked to European integration and the ‘Maidan’.»
Even in the new-look assembly, Poroshenko will have to work hard to win support for his plan to bring peace in the east as several other pro-Europe parties fear a sell-out to Russia and the separatists.
Fighting in the east has killed more than 3,700 people, displaced tens of thousands from their homes and brought economic ruin to Ukraine’s main industrial regions.
The crisis has highlighted the ex-Soviet republic’s geo-political fault line dividing the mainly Russian-speaking east which feels kinship with Moscow and the west where people yearn for a place in mainstream Europe.
Pro-Western Poroshenko called the election to secure further legitimacy after the revolution, which Russia denounced as a fascist coup to justify its backing of the separatists.
But there is little sign of national reconciliation, with the rebels threatening to hold their own elections in early November, people still dying every day in the east despite the ceasefire and anti-Russian feeling high in the capital.
Ukrainians are also expressing increasing disenchantment with the slow pace of reforms to improve living standards.
«There is a risk of a protest mood springing up again if there is no reform. Time is not on Poroshenko’s side. I hope he understands this and will undertake steps towards reform,» said Mustafa Nayem, a journalist and Maidan activist who is running for the Poroshenko bloc.

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