| Vasyl Protyvsikh | |
| Birth Date: | 16 October 1946 |
| Birth Place: | Ivano-Frankivsk |
| Party: | Independent |
Vasyl Protyvsikh (Ukrainian: Василь Противсіх) (born Vasyl Vasylyovych Humenyuk, Ukrainian: Василь Васильович Гуменюк, born October 16, 1946[1]) is a Ukrainian politician. He is best known as a self-nominated candidate in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, for which he changed his second name to Protyvsikh (ukr. for "Against all").[2] During the 2010 election he received 0.16% of the votes.[3]
Vasyliy Humenyuk completed a law degree at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv after serving in the Soviet army.[4] As a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine (although he insist he "never was and never will be a Leninist"[5]) Humenyuk was mayor of Yaremche from 1984 until the first democratic local elections in Ukraine in 1991.[6] Later he headed the customs service in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.[4] Humenyuk was numbered number 23 at party list of the electoral bloc KUCHMA during the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[6]
Vasyliy nominated himself for the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election.[2] On October 2, 2009 he changed his second name to Protyvsikh, that can be translated as "Against-everyone".[2] Protyvsikh changed his surname to “express the opinions of all those citizens that are against all candidates and the disorder that Ukraine currently finds itself in”.[7]
Protyvsikh claims "friends from around the world" assisted him in obtained the ₴2.5 million deposit needed for his registration as presidential candidate. Protyvsikh considered Yulia Tymoshenko his main opponent in the presidential elections.[8]
Currently Protyvsikh is president of the Ivano-Frankivsk Chamber of Commerce.[2] Protyvsikh wants Ukraine to have a banking system as Switzerland.[9]
In the 2012 parliamentary elections, he ran in the 83rd electoral district (Ivano-Frankivsk) as a self-nominated candidate, and took 8th place among 10 candidates with 627 votes (0.62%).[10]