 KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian president's party on Monday was heading for an absolute majority in parliament after a snap election, which would hand Volodymyr Zelenskiy a much-anticipated mandate for change.
If confirmed, the Servant of the People will become the first party in Ukraine's modern history to form an absolute parliamentary majority.
Zelenskiy, a popular television comedian who was elected president in April, pushed for the snap parliamentary vote, arguing that the current parliament dominated by allies of former President Petro Poroshenko is hampering his efforts for a radical change in Ukraine.
The parliament earlier this year didn't let Zelenskiy appoint key Cabinet ministers or fire tainted officials such as the prosecutor general.
Sunday's landslide win at the polls gives the 41-year-old Zelenskiy a rare mandate to fight Ukraine's endemic corruption, try to bring peace to the separatist controlled east and fix the country's stagnant economy even without spending time or effort on forging a coalition with other political players.
Servant of the People leader Dmytro Razumkov told reporters Monday morning that the party's strong showing both on the party rolls and in single-mandate districts means that it probably would not have to form a coalition with another party.
The next few months are likely to be crucial for Zelenskiy and Servant of the People, the party which was named after the television comedy in which he played a school teacher who unexpectedly becomes the Ukrainian president.
Read more on NewsOK.com
|