You're reading: Political experts: Administrative reform could raise rating of Yanukovych

Political experts have said that the carrying out of administrative reform could boost the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's popularity rating.

"People always like it when the number of officials is reduced… I believe that he [Yanukovych] will gain a positive image [as a result of the administrative reform]," President of the Open Policy Centre Ihor Zhdanov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

Head of the Center for Political and Legal Reform Ihor Kaleushko, in turn, supported his colleague’s opinion and noted that "today everything is aimed at carrying out reforms to raise the president’s popularity rating."

At the same time, Director of the Penta Center Volodymyr Fesenko only partially agreed with his colleagues, and noted that "of course, administrative reform includes a bit of PR."

According to him, for many Yanukovych supporters the process of administrative reforms could raise the popularity rating of the president by three times. Nevertheless, the solution of social issues would have more influence on the popularity rating of the head of state than such reforms, Fesenko said.