Oleksandr Kornienko (Photo: Valentyna Polishchuk / LIGA.net)

The presidential party Servant of the people may be headed by the first deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Kornienko. About this, while commenting on the congress of "servants" on December 17, to LIGA.net said an MP from the SN faction, who is not a member of the party.

"To be honest, I doubt very much that it will be a congress with elections. Most likely, it will again be a congress with appointments. Just like it was in 2021, when they actually just appointed Olena [Shulyak], and the item on nominating candidates was even removed from the agenda," he said, adding that he believes Kornienko is most likely to be appointed head of the party.

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Regarding Kornienko's candidacy, the MP noted that if there is "some progress in the near future – the end of the [Russian] war, the agreement" – then we should most likely expect elections within six months.

"This means that the key function of the party is to prepare polling stations, observers, members of polling stations, etc. And this process should be headed by a person who knows at least a little bit about the electoral process," the MP explained.

According to him, Kornienko is an experienced "field worker," a political technologist with a focus on field work, not strategic or ideological work.

As for whose idea it was to appoint the first deputy speaker as head of the National Assembly, the MP said LIGA.net said he did not know. However, he suspects that it could have been a consensus decision – an agreement between the faction's leadership and the president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Kornienko has been serving as first deputy speaker of the Parliament since October 2021. In the 2019 elections, he headed the Servants' campaign headquarters. He was number seven on the party's electoral list and was elected to parliament. The politician previously led the SN party from 2019 to 2021.

When asked about the future prospects of the party, the elected official said: "It is obvious that a decision has long been made to seriously rebrand Zelenskyy's party project for the next political cycle. Again, this is only if the issue of ending the war is resolved."

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When asked if there was any information about this rebranding, the MP replied that "no one knows about it at the moment."

He also said that the SN congress will be held offline and online. Preliminary, the event is scheduled for 16:30 – 17:00, i.e. in the evening of December 17.

UPDATED. Kornienko was elected head of the SN party, reported head of the Servants' faction in the parliament David Arakhamia.

  • On December 11, Kornienko said that the Rada could prepare a legislative framework for holding elections, but security should be provided by foreign partners.
  • On December 15, KIIS reported that the majority of Ukrainians do not support holding elections before a final peace agreement is concluded and complete end of the war.