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Ex-PM Tymoshenko launches bid for Ukraine presidency
KIEV, Jan 22, 2019 (AFP) – Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia
Tymoshenko on Tuesday officially launched her bid for the country’s
presidency, with polls showing her as the frontrunner.
“I’m running for the presidency,” she told a session of her nationalist
Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party to cheers from the crowd.
“I’ve made mistakes,” said Tymoshenko, who is a highly divisive figure in
Ukrainian politics.
“Maybe sometimes I’m wrong, but I’m wrong sincerely,” she said.
“Today we are entering a new era — an era of success, of happiness, of
enlightenment… today we begin Ukraine’s journey towards real and powerful
greatness.”
Tymoshenko is favourite to win the March 31 vote according to the latest
polls, but no candidate yet has an unassailable lead.
The 58-year-old has 16 percent support going into the two-round election,
according to surveys, ahead of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko with 13.8
percent.
In third place is Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who once played the
country’s president in a TV show but has promised to refresh Ukraine’s
political system.
Tymoshenko has been a leading figure in the political scene for the last
two decades, coming to international prominence through her role in the 2004
Orange Revolution.
The politician, long recognisable by her braided hair heaped atop her head
in traditional style, served as prime minister twice under her protest co-
leader Viktor Yushchenko.
But her fortunes changed after she lost the 2010 presidential election to
pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovych.
The following year she faced a string of criminal investigations and was
sentenced to seven years in jail, in which she served three.
She was released in 2014 — the day that pro-Europe, anti-corruption
protests led to Yanukovych’s ouster.
Tymoshenko contested that year’s presidential election but came a distant
second to Poroshenko, who had served in her cabinet.
Supporters say she has the iron will and anti-Kremlin credentials needed
to lead Ukraine but detractors accuse her of corruption and say she may have
ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1845HRS