Agence France-Presse quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Resident Senior Fellow Anders Aslund on how public perceptions of persistent corruption in Ukraine may affect voters’ decisions in the upcoming local elections:
Poroshenko’s Solidarity party is still projected to grab the biggest number of the mayoral seats and local legislatures up for grabs.
But his perceived inability to deal with a handful of tycoons who many feel ultimately decide the country’s future has seen his own ratings slip to less than half of what they were when he became president in May 2014.
“Ukraine’s politics suffer from a vicious circle of corruption,” said Anders Aslund of the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
“Its elections are extremely expensive. Large amounts of grey and black funds are needed to finance them. Criminals, called grey cardinals, handle this black financing, extracted from the state treasury and state companies.”
Poroshenko’s confident promise the day after his presidential triumph to make the eastern campaign “shorter in terms of timeframes and more efficient” has also done little to help his cause.