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KYIV, Oct 16 - President Leonid Kuchma continues to lose the Ukrainian public’s confidence, according to the poll entitled "Your Opinion: September 2000," conducted by the Social Monitoring Center, Ukrainian News reported.

According to the poll’s results, only about 6 percent of respondents has full confidence in Kuchma (compared with 8 percent in May), 27 percent would prefer to have confidence in him (24 percent), 31 percent has no confidence in him (29 percent), while 26 percent prefers to have no confidence in him (25 percent).

Meanwhile, 19 percent of respondents believes that the president protects the people’s interests, 35 percent believes he protects the interests of the elite and oligarchs, while 30 percent believes that he protects his own interests.

According to data from the Social Monitoring Center, the level of trust in Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko rose over the three summer months this year.

11 percent of respondents expressed full confidence in Yushchenko (compared with 9 percent in May), 29 percent said they would prefer to have confidence in him (24 percent), while 46 percent said they have no confidence in him (45 percent).

Furthermore, 28 percent of Ukraine’s population believes that Yushchenko protects the people’s interests, 26 percent believes he protects the interests of the elite and oligarchs, while 24 percent believes that he protects his own interests.

With respect to government institutions, respondents expressed the highest level of trust (16 percent) in the Armed Forces, 45 percent said they would prefer to have confidence in the Armed Forces, while around 31 percent said they prefer to have no confidence in the Armed Forces.

The poll was conducted in all of Ukraine’s regions. A total of 2,003 people from the age of 18 were polled. The standard deviation was 1.3-2.2 percent.