Poll: Shevchenko fails to improve rating of Korolevska's party

The inclusion of famous Ukrainian footballer Andriy Shevchenko in the party list of Natalia Korolevska's Ukraine-Forward! Party has not improved the rating of the party, according to sociologists.

"Shevchenko's inclusion in the list of Korolevska's party has not improved the rating, although it was expected to grow by 1-2%," Director of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation Iryna Bekeshkina said at a press conference on Monday.

She was commenting on the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation along with the sociological service of the Razumkov Center from August 10 to August 15.

According to the survey, the rating of the Ukraine-Forward! Party shrank from 4.6% in June to 4% in August.

At the same time, 62.5% of respondents said that the inclusion in the top five of party lists of famous athletes and artists would have no impact on their choice, 10% said that this would prevent them from voting for such a party, 14.7% said that this may increase the attractiveness of the party for which they planned to vote, and only 5% said that it could change their choice to vote for this party, while 7.7% were undecided.

"People are not so naïve so that such things could work," Bekeshkina said.

A total of 2,009 respondents from 132 towns and villages in all regions in Ukraine were interviewed. The poll's margin of error is 2.3% with a probability of 0.95.