KIEV, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - The leader of Ukraine’s UDAR party and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko was officially declared Mayor of Kiev during the first plenary session of the newly elected city council Thursday.
“Today is the beginning of a new country, a country of free citizens. The change in the country will begin in its capital, in Kiev,” he said in a speech before the City Council as he was sworn into office.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian parliament terminated Klitschko’s parliamentary mandate, paving the way for his appointment as the Mayor of the Ukrainian capital.
Klitschko – who had the support of Ukrainian business, including confectioner-turned-president Petro Poroshenko – was leading the pack with over 57 percent of votes throughout the vote counting process, while Kiev’s outgoing Mayor Volodimir Bondarenko came third.
Klitschko’s UDAR (Punch) Party also led in the Kiev City Council vote, taking more than 40 percent of votes.
On May 25, Ukrainians in Kiev went to the polls to vote on a new president and a new mayor for the country’s capital city Kiev. Petro Poroshenko has been confirmed as the winner of the presidential race earlier this week.
