Almost 70% of Ukrainians oppose holding presidential elections during the war - KIIS
Kyiv • UNN
The majority of Ukrainians (69%) believe that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should remain in office until the end of martial law.
As of February 2024 , the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians believe that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should serve as president until the end of martial law. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, UNN reports.
Details
The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians - 69% - believe that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should remain in office until the end of martial law.
Another 15% believe that elections should be held (of which 4% say that martial law should be suspended, and 11% support amending the relevant laws and holding elections during martial law).
There are also 10% who support the option that in May 2024, V. Zelenskyy will resign from office and until a new President is elected, his powers will be exercised by the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada
The KIIS emphasizes that the perception of the feasibility of elections depends on trust in the President. Among those who trust V. Zelensky, 87% believe that he should work until the end of martial law without elections.
At the same time, among those who do not trust V. Zelenskyy, 38% agree that he should remain in office until the end of martial law, and 54% support the options for a change of power (31% of them believe that elections should be held, and 23% - that the powers should be transferred to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada).
KIIS also notes that in all regions, opinions on this issue are quite similar.
Addendum
KIIS Executive Director Anton Grushetsky emphasized that the narrative that President is allegedly losing legitimacy in May 2024 plays into the hands of the Russian Federation. He explained that it is incredibly difficult to organize elections now.
Millions of people are abroad, millions are in dangerous conditions or under occupation, and hundreds of thousands are serving in the military. The lack of opportunities for citizens to participate in voting as voters and candidates will undermine the legitimacy of the results (with 65% of Ukrainians having a negative attitude towards online voting)
According to him, the alternative scenario with the transfer of powers to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada contains, first, the problem of trust and, accordingly, public legitimacy.
Analysts are convinced that too few Ukrainians know Stefanchuk, and among those who do, there are more who do not trust him. In addition, the question still remains as to how long the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada can act as President without holding elections.
One can have different attitudes towards President Zelenskyy - support some decisions, criticize others, but avoiding polarization and instability and maintaining the controllability of government institutions is in the interests of the whole society
For reference
The survey was conducted during February 5-10, 2024. A total of 1202 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (except Crimea) were interviewed by telephone using a computer based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers.
The survey was conducted with adults (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who at the time of the survey resided in Ukraine (within the borders controlled by the Ukrainian authorities until February 24, 2022).
Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 3.2% for indicators close to 50%, 2.7% for indicators close to 25%, 2.1% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.4% for indicators close to 5%. In wartime, in addition to the above formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added
Recall
Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska has said she does not know whether her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will run for re-election in 2024. In her opinion, it will depend on whether society needs him as president.
