Political and party representation of Rusin community leaders in Transcarpathia during the local elections of 2020

The article focuses on the political and party representation of the Rusin leaders in Transcarpathia (Ukraine) who particiapted in the local elections of 2020. The analysis is based on the electoral statistics and interviews with participants in the election campaign. According to the author, the Rusin leaders are heads and activists of national cultural associations and opinion leaders who do not represent ethno-cultural associations, but are widely known in Transcarpathia. The author argues that the new electoral system of “semi-open” party lists has resulted in the failure of local elections for all candidates representing the Rusin community. However, the electoral statistics shows that Rusin leaders actually received: 1) more votes than their opponents on the political party lists (Vladimir Fenych, Vasilij Sich, Nikolai Rishko); 2) the same number of votes (Svyatoslav Gal); 3) the required 25 % of the votes from the electoral quota (Yurij Shypovych). Most of the Rusin candidates ran for the political forces “For the Future” (7 persons) and “Opposition Platform - For Life” (5 persons). Their dominance can be explained by identifying candidates with the oppositional rhetoric of these parties, as well as their proximity to regional party leaders who sympathize with the Rusin public movement and identify themselves as Rusins. One of the representatives of Rusin community ran for the party of power “Servant of the People” (Svyatoslav Gal), one (Nikolaj Rishko) - for “The Team of Andrej Baloga” Candidates Ivan Danatsko, Ivan Palinkash, and Ivan Bushko, as self-nominated candidates, distanced themselves from political parties.

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