With artificial barriers created in order to impede elections to the district councils Kyiv city residents are deprived of the right to self-government and the opportunity to use budget funds efficiently. This was stated by the Head of Kyiv city organization of UKROP Dmytro Simansky. According to him, absence of the community representatives in districts of the Ukrainian capital violates the rights of Kyivans. In fact, every district of the city has the same or even greater number of people living there, as the cities of regional importance. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who cannot influence the life of their city, district or neighborhood.
“As for the elections to the district councils of the capital, we are confident – they must be held. After all, the city council is not able to adequately represent the interests of the whole community. Thus there should be regional organizations, and I would even say that we should form the councils of residential neighborhood,” said the Head of UKROP in Kyiv. He is convinced that only then people’s interests will be protected, and the funds, allocated for the needs of the community, will be used as intended.
Now the authorities emphasize that creation of district councils is an additional burden on the city budget, and say that their work needs about 60 million hryvnias per year. UKROP party organization in Kyiv explains that the money can be taken from the annual sum of 85 million hryvnias allocated for the deputies’ implementation of their pre-election promises.
“Deputies in district councils will much better understand the problems of communities. The voters will know each of them personally and will require solving problems directly. Therefore, the district deputy will be interested that every penny would be used as intended. But Kyiv officials are not interested in this, because they will have to share money with the Kyiv city residents,” considers Dmytro Simansky. According to him, the closer budget is to the people, the more transparent it is.
Another argument used by the authorities in favor of cancellation of the elections to district councils is the imperfect electoral legislation. “Functions of the district councils should be discussed, although we are confident that everything that can be decided at the local level should be decided at the local level. Discussion about electoral legislation can also be held. Discussion about creation of the residential neighborhood councils is also important. But it does not mean that any discussion should stop the process of creating district councils. At first there should be the elections themselves, and then we can discuss,” said the member of UKROP.
The politician says that the only reason why the authorities do not want to hold elections to Kyiv district councils is their unwillingness to use budget funds in favor of Kyivans, so that people could decide themselves how to use them. “That’s why they are telling that the society is not ready for self-government,” says the Head of Kyiv city organization of UKROP Dmytro Simansky.
Meanwhile the Head of UKROP in Kyiv hopes that, being united democratic political forces will defend the right of Kyivans to self-government. “In our fight for regeneration of district councils we have managed to create a democratic coalition of different political parties. The position is clear – we must recreate district councils. This informal coalition unites people who actually stand for the democracy and want to provide effective government for Kyiv city residents,” said Dmytro Simansky.
