Tymoshenko, her party lead electoral rankings in Ukraine
KYIV. Dec 11 (Interfax) - Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the party Batkivshchyna, is still the most popular possible presidential candidate in Ukraine, followed by entertainer Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, according to a public opinion poll.
If a presidential election had been held in November and respondents could have chosen from among 37 candidates, 11.9% (or 21.9% of those who had already decided for whom they would vote) have chosen for Tymoshenko, 8.2% (14.6%) Zelensky, 6.5% (11.6%) Poroshenko, and 6.2% (11%) Opposition Platform For Life leader Yuriy Boiko, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) said at the Interfax-Ukraine press center on Tuesday.
Another 4.9% (8.7%) would vote for Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko, 4.6% (8.2%) for Civic Position leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko, and 2.1% (3.8%) for rock musician and public figure Svyatoslav Vakarchuk.
27.6% of respondents have not yet decided for whom to vote, 9.3% would not go to polling stations, and 4.7% would cross out all candidates or make their ballot invalid in some other way.
In the second round of the presidential election, incumbent President Poroshenko would lose to Boiko, Vakarchuk, Zelensky, and Tymoshenko.
Tymoshenko would lose in the second round only to Zelensky.
Hrytsenko would lose to Tymoshenko in the second round by 0.4%.
The poll also showed that six political parties would garner enough votes to win parliamentary seats if elections to the Verkhovna Rada were held at the end of November or in early December 2018.
The poll found that 13.1% of respondents (or 23.4% among those who have decided for whom to vote) would cast their ballots for Batkivshchyna, 7.3% (13%) for the party People's Servant, 6.3% (11.3%) for Opposition Platform For Life, 6.3% (11.2%) for the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, 5.1% (9.1%) for Civic Position led by Anatoliy Hrytsenko, and 4.5% (8%) for the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko.
The Opposition Bloc, Samopomich, and Popular Front, which are currently represented in the parliament, would not overcome the 5% election threshold: only 1.1% of all respondents (2% of those who intend to vote) would support the Opposition Bloc, 2.2% (3.6%) Samopomich, and 0.1% (0.2%) Popular Front.
26.9% of the respondents have still not decided for whom to vote, 10.9% said they have decided not to vote, and 3.9% would cross out all parties or invalidate their ballot in some other way.
The KIIS polled 2,000 respondents living in 110 communities in all regions of Ukraine except Crimea and the areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not currently controlled by Kyiv between November 23 and December 3, 2018.
The presidential election is scheduled for March 31, 2019, and parliamentary elections for October 27.