If the parliamentary elections were held this April, 61% of those eligible to vote would take part in the election, with 19.1% of them giving their vote to the Party of Regions and 10.7% to the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union, according to the results of an opinion poll conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on April 12-24.
According to the institute’s press release, the five percent hurdle would be taken by the Front for Change Party (7.3% of the vote), Vitali Klitschko’s UDAR party (6.7%) and the Communist Party of Ukraine (5.7%).
The Svoboda all-Ukrainian Union would get a 3% of the vote, the Ukraine-Forward! Party lead by Natalia Korolevska would score 2.8%, the People’s Party of Ukraine 1.2% and the Civil Position Party 1.1%. Other political forces are supported by less than 1% of the respondents.
A total of 2,040 of respondents aged 18 and older were questioned for the poll in all the regions of Ukraine, Kyiv and Crimea.
It was reported that the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology conducted a similar poll two months ago. According to its findings, had the elections been held in the second half of February, about 64% of Ukrainians would have gone to the polls, and the vote would have been as follows: Party of Regions 17.3%, Batkivschyna 13.1%, Front for Change 8.1%, Communists 5.4%, and UDAR 5.4%.
In October 2012, Ukraine will hold parliamentary elections under a new elections law that sets a 5% election threshold instead of 3% and bars blocs from running. Also, 50% of deputies will be elected by party-list vote, and 50% from majority constituencies.
The current parliament is represented by members of the Party of Regions, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, the Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense bloc, the Communist Party of Ukraine and Lytvyn’s Bloc.
