Poll shows seven parties would qualify for Ukrainian Rada if elections were held early

The idea to hold early elections to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada is supported by 47.2 percent of Ukrainians polled by the SOCIS social and marketing survey center and the Rating sociological group; another 44.9 percent are against such elections.

The poll of 4,000 respondents conducted on Nov. 24 – Dec. 2, 2016, whose findings were made public at the Interfax press center in Kyiv on Dec. 14, showed that 70.8 percent of the respondents would go to polling stations to vote in early parliamentary elections if they were held next Dec. 18, while 25.2 percent were unsure whether they would cast their ballots.

Among those who plan to go to polling stations if early elections are arranged, 15.5 percent would vote for Batkivshchyna, 14.1 percent for the Petro Poroshenko Solidarity Bloc, 11.2 percent for the Opposition Bloc, 9.8 percent for Samopomich, 9.1 percent for the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, 8.8percent for the party Za Zhyttia party (For Life), 7.1 percent for the Civic Position party led by Anatoliy Hrytsenko, 4.9 percent for Svoboda, and 4.1 percent for the Movement of New Forces party led by Mikheil Saakashvili, which has not yet even been registered.

Ukrainian law stipulates that, to be represented in the Rada, a party must garner at least 5 percent of the vote.

As many as 20.1 percent of those polled identified Opposition Bloc faction leader Yuriy Boiko as the opposition leader in Ukraine, another 14.5 percent mentioned Batkivshchyna leader Yuliya Tymoshenko and 11.5 percent Oleh Liashko as such leaders.

At the present time, six parties have parliamentary seats in the Verkhovna Rada, namely the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Popular Front, the Opposition Bloc, Samopomich, Batkivshchyna, and Radical Party.