Experts have said that the inevitability of the victory of a single opposition candidate in the election for Kyiv mayor is a myth.
“I would like to debunk some myths that have existed since the 2012 elections. The first one is that an opposition candidate will automatically win the election of Kyiv mayor,” managing partner at the National Anti-Crisis Group Taras Zahorodniy said at a press conference on Tuesday.
He referred to the results of a survey conducted by Active Group. He said that according to the survey, 14% are ready to vote for a government candidate, current head of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov, and 27.5% are confident in his victory.
According to the expert, this can be explained by the fact that the government has a better mobilization potential than the opposition. In particular, the government can do this through municipal and social services.
At the same time, the opposition, according to Zahorodniy, demonstrated in the previous elections that it cannot mobilize its electorate at the last moment and that they do not go to the polling stations.
According to a survey conducted by Active Group on January 10-13, 34.3% of respondents are ready to vote for UDAR Party leader Vitali Klitschko, 14% for Popov, 12.1% for independent MP Petro Poroshenko, 4.2% for Svoboda representative Andriy Illienko, and 28.4% were undecided.
In the elections of deputies to Kyiv City Council, 27.2% of those polled are ready to vote for the UDAR Party, 17.9% for Batkivschyna, 11.9% for Svoboda, 7.4% for the Regions Party, 1.8% for the Communist Party, and 30.6% were undecided.
A total of 1,545 residents of Kyiv were interviewed, and the poll’s margin of error is 2.3%.
Political analyst Andriy Safonenko said he was confident that local elections in Kyiv would be held this year.
“Presidential elections will be held soon, and now it’s necessary to conduct a dress rehearsal,” he said.
