You're reading: Poll: Batkivschyna Party’s electoral rating tops Regions Party in Ukraine

The Ukrainian opposition Batkivschyna Party's electoral rating is currently higher than that of the Regions Party, as is evident from a public opinion poll of 2,000 respondents that the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives foundation jointly with Ukrainian Sociology Service conducted in all regions of Ukraine from November 22 to Dec. 6, the results of which were presented at a press conference on Friday.

If elections to the Verkhovna Rada were held in the near future, 18.8% of the voters determined to cast their ballots would vote for Batkivschyna and 17.8% for the Regions Party.

In March 2011, Batkivschyna’s electoral rating was 16.1% and the Regions Party’s – 22.8%.

The Front of Change Party would garner 11.4%, the Communist Party 8.4%, and the UDAR party led by prominent boxer Vitaliy Klychko 5.8%.

Oleksandr Vyshniak, the head of Ukrainian Sociology Service, said in commenting on these findings that, while growth in Batkivschyna’s rating is statistically insignificant, the Regions Party has lost five percentage points, which signals a certain trend.

He suggested that the ruling party’s rating is declining mostly due to frustration of voters in eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, primarily in Donetsk region and in Crimea.

Vyshniak also suggested that the Front for Change’s rating grew to 11.4% in December from 5.5% in March and that of the Communist Party to 8.4% from 4.4% due to the fact that the new version of the law on parliamentary elections stipulates that the ballots will not have the ‘against all’ option, and so some voters who would have voted against all earlier have chosen these two parties now.

The poll also showed that other parties would not have overcome the 5% election threshold. In particular, the Strong Ukraine Party would garner 4.4% of the vote, the Svoboda Party 3.3%, the People’s Party and Civil Opposition Party 1.9% each, Our Ukraine 1.8%, and the Green Party led by Denys Moskal 1.5%. The other parties would get under 1% of the vote.