Fifty percent of voters are ready to support presidential candidate and Regions Party leader Victor Yanukovych in the run-off of the presidential election in Ukraine, according to a survey entitled "The Electoral Expectations of Ukrainian Citizens."
Director of the Social Perspective Center for Public and Information technologies Ihor Burov presented the results of the survey at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Dec. 16.
According to the survey, Yanukovych could hope for support from 50.3% of respondents, while only 38.2% are ready to vote for his nearest opponent, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Among those who are ready to go to the polls on Jan. 17, some 31.5% of Ukrainians are planning to vote for Yanukovych, 20.3% for Tymoshenko, 6.3% for Strong Ukraine leader Sergey Tigipko, 5.9% for Front for Change leader Arseniy Yatseniuk, 5.3% for Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, 4.2% for Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, and 3.2% for incumbent President Viktor Yuschenko.
Some 6.1% of respondents are planning to vote against all presidential candidates, and 9.3% of those who will definitely vote were undecided.
Commenting on the possible voter turnout in the first round, Burov said: "There will be over a half [of voters], but no more than 60%."
The survey was conducted in all regions of Ukraine, Crimea and in the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol on December 1-10, 2009. A total of 2,100 respondents participated in the survey. The poll’s margin of error does not exceed 2.3%.
The election of the Ukrainian president is scheduled for Jan. 17, 2010.
