How do Ukrainians picture themselves their future president?
The Day has repeatedly initiated a discussion on the expectations regarding Ukraine’s next president. In part, our newspaper wrote about what kind of president for Ukraine Russia and the European community are interested in, what the experts and ordinary electors want to hear from the contenders for the post, and what and in what way the candidates should discuss. Last Thursday leading political scientists of the National Institute for Strategic Research (NISR) presented the results of their research of the model of the future president, incidentally, pointing to The Day’s contribution to covering this subject. By the data of a countrywide poll conducted by the NISR’s Sociology Service in February 2004 among 1800 persons, most people believe most important qualities for the future president are honesty and decency (73%), intellect (57%), professionalism (40%), decisiveness (36%), and humaneness (31%). In the Ukrainians’ opinion, the future president need not be a good speaker (only 3% pointed out to the importance of this quality for a president), or even a democrat (10%) and reformer (11%).
Even more interesting are the results of this poll, if those polled are divided into groups according to their intention to vote for a certain candidate. Basing on the selection of qualities, important for the future president, by various electorate groups, one can surmise what characteristics they see in their candidate. For instance, those intending to support the Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko regard honesty, intellect, and professionalism to be most important. Simultaneously, they do not attach much importance to the candidate’s fidelity to principle (while 22% of all those polled believe it important, for Yushchenko’s supporters this figure is only 14%). For potential voters for the current Prime Minister Yanukovych, to the contrary, adherence to principle matters more than for the general number of the those polled (31% compared to 22%). This also refers to effectiveness (31% against 17%). Those trusting the Left candidates (Petro Symonenko and Oleksandr Moroz) see honesty and decency as priorities. Simultaneously, they believe decisiveness and intellect less important. Incidentally, Yuliya Tymoshenko’s supporters proved to be interested in the latter quality less of all. While 57% of the total number of those polled believe intellect to be significant for the future head of the state (this index is high for all potential candidates), only 15% of potential voters for the BYuT leader consider that the future president should be distinguished with intellect. Supporters of SDPU(o) leader Viktor Medvedchuk are most eager to see a clever man at the helm, with 69% of them pointing to this quality as important.
The institute’s experts also approached the study of public expectations from the other side. Commenting on the results of the research, acting NISR first deputy director Oleksandr Lytvynenko stated that today for most voters political and financial stability is a more significant factor than a desire to change those in power. Thus, answering the question what is most important for Ukraine in 2004, to preserve the economic growth rate and consistency or change the power, simultaneously destroying the economic and political stability, 39.5% expressed their confidence that preserving the economic growth prevails, with 22% speaking for changing the regime.
Traditionally, those polled were also asked whom they will support in the presidential elections. However, this caused no sensation in the so-called candidates’ ratings. The top three places are still occupied by Viktor Yushchenko, Petro Symonenko, and Viktor Yanukovych. One-round elections still seem improbable, since none of the candidates enjoys support from 50% of the voters.
