The past year saw quite a few changes in Ukraine, which were reflected in public opinion polls. Data of a recent poll by the Democratic Initiatives Fund, conducted jointly with the Taylor Nelson Sofrez Ukraine company in early January, suggest that over the past year Ukrainians lost confidence in the president and parliament, became disillusioned with the Armed Forces (the level of public confidence in the army used to be traditionally high at all times), national security service, and mass media. The poll results suggest that the populace is not satisfied with the performance of the parliament, since apart from the declining level of VR popularity throughout the year, sociologists registered a 9% drop in the level of confidence in the legislature in December alone. Currently, a mere 5.7% of those polled trust the Verkhovna Rada completely, which is a record low among the key state and social establishments in Ukraine. Presenting the poll results to journalists on January 20, Iryna Bekeshkina, scientific adviser of the Democratic Initiatives Fund, attributed the waning trust in the parliament to the recent events in the Verkhovna Rada when the opposition blocked the work of the parliament and the majority was reallocating the committees. In all probability, one of the reasons behind the waning confidence in the lawmakers is our compatriots’ dissatisfaction with the way the most pressing problems were addressed last year. The actual paralysis of the parliament in the months after elections hardly did any good for the popularity of deputies. Most of those polled believe that in 2002 the powers that be failed utterly to solve the problem of corruption in Ukraine (61%), poverty (52%), unemployment (59%), healthcare problems (54%), environmental problems (49%), and crime-related problems (45%). Ukrainians more or less positively assessed the work of the country’s leadership as regards the settlement of interethnic conflicts (11% of those polled believe that the authorities succeeded in solving these conflicts, while a mere 10% said the leadership cannot solve interethnic conflicts) and the development of relations with Russia (8% of those polled said the powers that be were quite successful against 11% who disagreed with them).
Exemplary are pollees’ answers as to the changes in their quality of living that occurred during the last year. A weighty 38% of those polled believe that over this period employment guarantees took a turn for the worse, 33% said healthcare deteriorated, 28% said that they were less protected against the arbitrariness of authorities and officials, and 25% are more worried about their personal security.
And finally, according to the organizers of the press conference, the conference was to be led by the renowned Ukrainian journalist, Serhiy Naboka, who passed away on January 18 in Vinnytsia. Journalists and sociologists observed a minute of silence to honor their colleague.
