Forty-nine percent of Ukrainian citizens believe that Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko must guarantee democratic parliamentary elections in 2006 by refraining from direct participation in them. This follows from a poll conducted by the civic organization Ukrainian Democratic Circle. Of those polled, 22% believe that Yushchenko should take part in the parliamentary elections, while 29% are unsure. The poll suggests a very high election turnout for the 2006 elections, given that even now 71% of respondents are planning to vote.
According to the poll, if the parliamentary elections were held next Sunday, a mere 8% of respondents would support Our Ukraine People’s Union (NSNU) without Yushchenko on its roster. At the same time, 21% of those polled would vote for Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna [Fatherland] nationwide union, and 16% for the Regions Party, according to LigaBusinessInform. The poll was conducted on June 23-29, 2005. Commissioned by the Institute of Politics, it questioned 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older. Parliamentarian Oleksandr Hudyma, who chairs the Lviv regional organization of the Ukrainian People’s Party, said recently that “unless Viktor Yushchenko agrees to head the election roster of NSNU in a month or two, the party will see a mass exodus.” He believes that many people joined NSNU only to use Yushchenko’s name to win mandates in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Experts estimate that the name of the current president on the roster would give NSNU another 10% to 15% of the popular vote.
