Believe or disbelieve

About one-quarter of Ukrainians have given a negative assessment of the work accomplished by Victor Yanukovych’s government in the first 100 days in office. These are the results of a survey conducted by the Sofia Center of Social Research. The survey polled 2,024 people in all regions of Ukraine on Oct. 19-26. The margin of error does not exceed 2.2 percent.

According to the results of the survey, posted on www.korrespondent.net, 26.6 percent of respondents gave a negative evaluation to the work of the Yanukovych government, while 12.9 percent gave it a somewhat positive rating. A mixed positive and negative assessment was given by 24.8 percent of respondents, while 30.9 percent think it’s too soon to evaluate the government.

At the same time there is some conclusive evidence that the poll results are politically motivated. Thirty percent of the Party of Region’s supporters evaluate the government’s work somewhat positively, and only 1.7 percent negatively. For example, only 3.3 percent of BYuT supporters give a somewhat positive rating of the government’s activities compared to 53.8 percent of respondents in this group, who gave a somewhat negative rating.

Among the tasks that the Yanukovych government managed to complete “badly” or “somewhat badly,” 71.8 percent of respondents named the question of raising salaries, pensions, scholarships, and material aid. The struggle against corruption was singled out by 63.1 percent, while 74.9 percent named curbing prices and inflation.

Paradoxically enough, Prime Minister Yanukovych enjoys the highest levels of both trust and distrust in Ukraine: 24.5 percent of those polled trust him completely, and 28.4 percent completely distrust him. Yulia Tymoshenko, the ByuT leader, won second place in the people’s trust ratings: 15 percent of respondent trust her completely, while 38.3 percent completely distrust her. A respectable third place was given to Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Lutsenko: 13.8 percent of Ukrainians trust him, while 21.9 percent do not.

Next come Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko (11.8 percent of trust compared to 35.7 percent of distrust) and President Viktor Yushchenko (10.1 percent of trust compared to 37.7 percent of distrust). The speaker of the Verkhovna Rada placed eighth in the trust ratings (8.7 percent of trust versus 29.1 percent of distrust).

At the same time, the results of the poll show that ex-president Leonid Kuchma is distrusted most by respondents (59.9 percent).

The question of canceling the political reform found positive support among 17.3 percent of those polled, while 14.8 percent are somewhat positive about it; 19.2 percent of respondents have a somewhat negative view, and 18.1 percent are totally against canceling the reform. At the same time, 15.8 percent of those polled are neutral in their stand on this question, while 14.8 of respondents could not answer the question.

If presidential elections were held next week, the leader of the Party of Regions, Prime Minister Yanukovych, would have the best chance of winning: 24.3 percent of respondents are ready to vote for him; 14.5 percent would vote for the BYuT leader Yulia Tymoshenko, while President Yushchenko would receive support from 9.7 percent of voters. The leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine would garner 3.4 percent of the vote; former Verkhovna Rada speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, 1.6 percent, and the current parliamentary speaker, Oleksandr Moroz — 1.4 percent.

If parliamentary elections were held next week, the Socialist Party of Ukraine would not make it to parliament. Only four parties would overcome the three— percent barrier: the Party of Regions (24.8 percent of those polled), Batkivshchyna (15.7 percent), Our Ukraine People’s Union (6.4 percent) and the Communist Party (3.3 percent). Only 1.9 percent of respondents would vote for the Socialist Party.

More than 1 percent of the vote would be won by Volodymyr Lytvyn’s People’s Party (1.4 percent), and Natalia Vitrenko’s PSPU (1.3 percent).