position:independent candidate

  • IT pioneer announces candidacy for parliament with holistic vision for army and economy
    http://www.kyivpost.com/content/politics/it-pioneer-announces-candidacy-for-parliament-with-holistic-vision-for-arm

    The prominent founder of a popular domain name registrar and website hosting company told the Kyiv Post he is running for a seat in parliament as an independent candidate. The information technology pioneer, Oleksandr Olshanskiy, didn’t specify in which of the 225 single-mandate races he would run. Initially, he said he expected to get elected under the UDAR party ticket led by Kyiv mayor and retired boxing champion Vitaliy Klitschko, according to a Sept. 11 interview with the Kyiv Post. 

    Olshanskiy’s announcement comes on the heels of other visible technology business professionals joining politics. Among them are the former head of Microsoft Ukraine Dmytro Shymkiv, who in July became the deputy head of President Petro Poroshenko’s administration, and Viktor Galasyuk, who recently became an economic adviser to Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko after heading the Bionic Hill innovation park project.

    In addition to them, the CEO and founder of Ukrainian outsourcing software developer ELEKS, Oleksii Skrypnyk, together with entrepreneur and co-founder of Invisible CRM Vlad Voskresenskiy, are parliamentary candidates in Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy’s Samopomich party, holding the third and 24th positions on the list, respectively. Elections are scheduled for Oct. 26 with half the 450 seats being allocated to proportional party lists, and the other half in first-past-the-post single-mandate races.

    Après cette revue des candidats issus du monde de l’IT, dont D. Shymkiv, déjà vu ici http://seenthis.net/messages/290320, le journal passe au programme d’Olshanskiy (soit, Alexandre Olchansky) et c’est pas triste !

    Known for his libertarian ideas and outspoken statements regarding politics, especially on taxation issues and the right to bear arms, Olshanskiy expressed caution and flexibility in his plans for working as a lawmaker.

    I’m saying things that are not peculiar to me,” Olshanskiy said. “I’m a libertarian with a right-wing deviation, […] but the situation today is so thin that unity may prove more valuable than radicalism.

    He continued: “Although not being perfect, the president in my opinion has all necessary qualities to do something. And parliament now must help him. It does not mean we don’t need to control him, but we have to give him a chance to do something…Because the country really needs reforms.

    Encore un chaud partisan de l’armée suisse, du port d’armes…

    He wants to help the Ukrainian army adopt a similar structure to that of the Swiss army and on simplifying the tax code. “I don’t want to see the Ukrainian army similar to the Soviet Army. I’m for an army based on contract principles, but also for mandatory short period of military service and regular musters for all citizens,” Olshanskiy explained.
    Other measures he supports are to introduce a system of pre-draft training for the youth, as well as loosening gun control restrictions.

    … et bien sûr, un pourfendeur de l’impôt et de la régulation.

    As for economic reforms, Olshanskiy wants to “stop the war that the government fights against business for the past 23 years.” The IT businessman wants to start with making taxes in Ukraine more transparent by extending the existing simplified taxation scheme, which is now available for certain business activities.

    Staying true to his repeatedly declared values, Olshanskiy said that in the future he will also stand for abandoning the value-added tax altogether.

    VAT is the absolute evil for any economy, as is any implicit tax,” he added. “I think it needs to be canceled, and its propaganda has to be criminally prosecuted.

    Another measure Olshanskiy wants to introduce is a scheme that allows people and companies to pay their taxes directly to state-funded organizations.

    Let’s take the army as an example. If I buy them a tank, the army would give me a receipt for the amount I paid for it, and I would be able to reduce my taxes by this sum. It’s not charity, I’d just directly fund the state budget skipping the whole bureaucratic machine.

    In Olshanskiy’s opinion, this scheme can create a competitive alternative to the government apparatus.

    Pour conclure par un hymne aux entrepreneurs des nouvelles technologies et un coup de patte aux politiciens professionnels.

    These people [from the IT business] are self-reliant, they’ve already done many things — and will do more. Their way of thinking is similar to that of today’s volunteer battalions [in the war zone] — if I won’t do it, then who will? Do you think Shymkiv dreamed of working in the president’s administration? I assure you that a seat of the head of Microsoft Ukraine is way more comfortable. If you don’t go to the parliament to steal money, you have to understand that it’s hard work.

    Y a du boulot, en effet !

  • Lebanese MPs vote in presidential election
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanese-mps-set-vote-presidential-election

    Updated at 12:23 pm: Lebanese parliamentarians gathered on Wednesday morning to vote in the highly anticipated #presidential_elections, which have heightened the rivalry between the March 8 and March 14 coalitions. Three people declared their candidacy: Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces, Henri Helou of the Progressive Socialist Party and independent candidate Nadine Moussa, who is the first woman to present herself in presidential elections in #Lebanon. Presidents in Lebanon are chosen through a parliamentary and cabinet vote as opposed to a general election. read more

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