Survey results: 60% of Ukrainians consider the political situation in Ukraine tense

The vast majority of Ukrainians (60%) consider the current political situation in Ukraine to be tense. Thirty percent consider it to be critical. Only six percent of people think it is calm. The assessment of the situation has not changed in comparison with the last year.

The results of the nationwide survey were announced by Iryna Bekeshkina, Director of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

“Seventy-four percent of citizens are convinced that the activities of political parties do not meet democratic standards,” said Oleksiy Sydorchuk, political analyst of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

He added that 48% of Ukrainians supported the holding of early parliamentary elections, and 64% would take part in the elections. Iryna Bekeshkina added that most voters support the “Batkivshchyna” party. It is supported by 11.2% of citizens who are going to take part in the elections. “However, there is no absolute leader among the parties. They all go very close to each other,” added Ms. Bekeshkina.

“If the elections were held now, we would receive a very polarized, […] fragmentary parliament, […] in which there would be no unconditional majority. […] This would not lead to stability,” said Oleksiy Haran, professor of politology at the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, research director at Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

Oleksiy Sydorchuk noted that only 29% of Ukrainian citizens know about state funding of political parties. “This is a rather low indicator […] which demonstrates a low ability of the authorities to inform voters about such a rather important reform,” he stressed. Forty-nine percent of citizens believe that parties should be funded by the party leaders.

Oleksiy Koshel, Director General of Committee of Voters of Ukraine, noted that the analysis of the total number of bills that became the laws has shown that the Verkhovna Rada adopts 84% of the bills drafted by the President and only 24% of the government bills. “Communication between the government and parliament is one of the main challenges the parliamentary corps faces,” he added.

According to Olha Ayvazovska, Chairman of the Board of the Civil Network “OPORA,” among the positive achievements in the Verkhovna Rada’s activity is the fact that 21 parliamentary committees enhanced their indicators of openness and accountability; the main disappointment of the year is the electoral legislation reform.

Maria Holub, a European Integration expert of the Reanimation Package of Reforms, Advisor to the Head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, noted that the main achievements of foreign policy activities were the introduction of a visa-free regime and the continuation of economic sanctions against Russia. “At last we began to call it like it is; we began to recognize that there is a hot phase of the war rather than the antiterrorist operation in the East,” she added.