According to a poll released on March 5, parliamentarian and businessman Petro Poroshenko is the leading candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine. The Center for Social and Marketing Research released the results of the poll in advance of the May 25 election.
Poroshenko, who served in the cabinet of ministers in the governments of former presidents Victor Yushchenko and Victor Yanukovich, is an independent member of parliament and the millionaire owner of the Roshen confectionary company.
Some 21.2 percent of respondents said they supported Poroshenko for president. Even more hopeful for his candidates, among those polled who intend to vote in the upcoming election, 30.9 percent said they would vote for Poroshenko.
Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform party, came second in the polling. While 21.2 percent of those polled said they would vote for Klitschko, only 21.3 percent of those who planned on voting in the May 25 election said they would vote for Klitschko.
Under the 2004 constitution, which the Verkhovna Rada voted to return to on Feb. 21, the president will have less control over the government than the parliament and the prime minister. Under the old constitution, the president had the most of the power in the government.
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was third among all polled and among those who planned to vote in the election, receiving 9.7 percent and 14.1 perecent, respectively. Only 2.3% percent of respondents who intend to vote in the upcoming election favored Dmitro Yarosh, the leader of the militant Praviy Sektor group.
The poll, which was conducted throughout Ukraine from Feb. 25 to March 4, surveyed 2004 respondents; 58.3 percent of those polled said they planned to vote in the upcoming election.
Kyiv Post staff writer Isaac Webb can be reached at [email protected]
