Ukrainians see president as major driver of reform

Director of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation Iryna Bekeshkina said this at a press conference at Ukrinform on Wednesday, while presenting the results of the survey.

"The president is considered as the main driver of reform by a wide margin – 60%," Bekeshkina said.

She noted that a similar survey in 2018 showed that 24% of respondents saw the president as the main driver of reform.

"The government is also mainly considered as a driver of reform - 37%, the parliamentary faction of the Servant of the People - 30%, the population - 27%, public organizations, volunteers - 23.9%," Bekeshkina said.

At the same time, she noted that the number of people recognizing the Western countries as reform drivers decreased from 25% in 2018 to 12% in 2019 and the number of those seeing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as a driver of reform shrank from 24% to 12%.

Bekeshkina also noted that according to respondents, the greatest resistance to reforms is offered by oligarchs and bureaucrats. "And in the ideas of the people, their braking role has increased significantly," the sociologist said.

According to the poll, 50.9% believe that oligarchs are the main brake in the implementation of the necessary reforms in Ukraine, and 43.1% think these are bureaucracy and officials.

A nationwide survey was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the sociological service of the Razumkov Center from December 6 to December 11, 2019 in all regions of Ukraine, except Crimea and the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A total of 2,018 respondents aged 18 and over were surveyed. The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2.3%.

The survey was funded through the MATRA project of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.