After Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes death of coronavirus complications, his duties will be performed by the Kharkiv City Council Secretary Ihor Terekhov. Olha Aivazovska, the Chairwoman of the Board at Civil Network OPORA, announced this on her Facebook page.
"So far, there is a person to perform the mayor’s functions, and it is far from certain that the Kharkiv mayor elections will take place in the near future," she said.
Earlier wrote that, according to Aivazovska, no later than 15 days after the death of the city mayor, the one who exercises the mayor’s powers must apply to the Verkhovna Rada to call special elections. The Rada, in turn, must consider this application no later than ninety days from the date of the relevant mayor’s powers early termination.
"In practice, there is no responsibility of a collegial parliamentary body for not setting a date and sometimes the procedure is not carried out for years," Aivazovskaya summarized.
Who is Ihor Terekhov
Terekhov obtained his first higher education in 1990 graduating from the Kharkiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. In 2006, he graduated from the Kharkiv Regional Institute of Ukrainian Academy of Public Administration (UAPA) attached to the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Terekhov's first job was in the LTD Industrial Company "Ukrkonditsioner", a few years after that he became the head of the JSC Kharkiv plant "Konditsioner". Until 2006, he was the head of the department for entrepreneurship and consumer market at the Kharkiv City Council.
After obtaining his second higher education in 2006, he was appointed economic advisor to the head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, and a year later became his deputy.
In 2010, he became deputy mayor, and in 2015—his first deputy. In the same year, Terekhov became a deputy of the Kharkiv City Council of the 7th convocation. In December 2020, he was appointed the City Council Secretary. In the local elections of 2020, he became a City Council deputy of the 8th convocation (the second in the list of the Kernes Bloc "Successful Kharkiv").
According to Chesno, during his tenure, Terekhov missed more than 50% of his commission session, and in 2020 he "sowed buckwheat," gave out Easter cakes branded with his name.
Context. Kernes was admitted to the hospital with bilateral pneumonia in September. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 in a severe form. In the morning it became known that Kernes, who was being treated for coronavirus at the German clinic Charité, died on the night of December 17, 2020 of COVID-19 complications.