Victor Yanukovich is leading the election rush

The political organization led by former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych continues to dominate Ukraine’s electoral campaign, according to a poll by Sotsinform. 26.8 per cent of respondents would support the Party of Regions (PR) in next month’s election to the Supreme Council, Angus Reid Global Scan reported.

The People’s Union-Our Ukraine (NS-NU) coalition of current president Viktor Yushchenko is second with 19.3 per cent, followed by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc—which includes the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) Party of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko—with 16.7 per cent. Support is lower for the Popular Bloc My (We) of speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU), the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), and the Civil Coalition Pora-PRP.

Ukrainian voters are set to renew their legislative branch on Mar. 26. In the 2002 ballot, Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine (NU) bloc received 23.6 per cent of the vote and elected 112 members to the 450-seat legislative branch. Parties require at least three per cent of the vote to qualify for proportional representation seats in the Supreme Council.

Yushchenko won the December 2004 presidential election, with 51.99 per cent of the vote in an unprecedented third round against Yanukovych. Last September, Yushchenko sacked his entire cabinet, substituting Tymoshenko with Dnipropetrovsk governor Yuri Yekhanurov.

On Feb. 13, Yanukovych pledged to improve bilateral ties with Russia, saying, "Preserving our special relationship with Russia is another priority in our economic strategy. The Party of Regions stems from the objective reality: Russia is Ukraine’s strategic partner, including membership in the Common Economic Space."

For the first time, the members of the Supreme Council—and not the president—will name the country’s prime minister.

Polling Data

Which party would you vote for in the next parliamentary election?

Source: Sotsinform
Methodology: Interviews with 1,900 Ukrainian adults, conducted from Feb. 8 to Feb. 27, 2006. Margin of error is 2.4 per cent.