The Russia-friendly Opposition Platform – Za Zhittya political union has chosen Yuriy Boyko as its candidate in the 2019 presidential elections, the party announced on Nov. 17.
Lawmaker Boyko, a former energy minister close to exiled ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, is co-chair of the 43-member Opposition Bloc faction in the Ukrainian parliament.
“Our alliance will represent the interests of citizens from the South-East (of Ukraine), the Russian-speaking population, and all those people who understand the need for profound changes in the policy of the current leadership,” Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of the Za Zhittya party’s political council, wrote in a statement announcing Boyko’s nomination.
Boyko was Opposition Platform’s second choice for the union’s presidential candidate. Its first choice was Vadym Rabinovych, the leader of the Za Zhittya (“For Life”) party and a lawmaker from the Opposition Bloc faction. However, he withdrew from the race due to his religion.
“As an observant Jew, I don’t have a moral right to be a judge in Orthodox Christian issues, which is an unconditional responsibility of the future president,” Rabinovych said at a briefing in Kyiv on Nov. 15. He was referring to the forthcoming creation of a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople’s decision to grant the Ukrainian church independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.
A poll carried out in October and November by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the Razumkov Center, and the Rating Group indicated that Boyko would receive 8.7 percent of the vote if the presidential election were held in the immediate future.
The two parties — Opposition Bloc and Za Zhittya — officially announced their merger into a single opposition platform on Nov. 9 to participate in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. They say their agenda is to fight “tariff genocide, the debt trap, and predatory nationalism” and bring peace and economic recovery to Ukraine.
The two parties are widely regarded as successors to the Russia-friendly Party of Regions, which was disbanded after its leader, former President Viktor Yanukovych, fled Ukraine in 2014 following the EuroMaidan Revolution.
During Yanukovych’s tenure, Boyko was the head of the Kyiv Oblast chapter of the Party of Regions and held top government positions, including chairman of the Naftogaz gas company, deputy prime minister, and minister of energy.
The Party of the Development of Ukraine — also comprised of former members of the Party of Regions — has also joined Opposition Platform – Za Zhittya, its leader, lawmaker Yuriy Miroshnichenko, told the 112 TV channel on Nov. 17.
