President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party leads with 49.5 percent in the July 21 snap parliamentary election, according to a poll published by the Rating Group polling agency on July 18.
July 18 is the last day when opinion poll results can be published.
The percentage refers to those who are planning to vote and have decided for whom to vote. One half of the Rada is elected in a general vote, through proportional party lists, and the other half is elected in single-member districts.
Zelensky’s party’s result means it can take more than 120 seats through the general vote, and will likely add many more through the races in single-member districts.
The Opposition Platform For Life, a pro-Russian party, is the runner-up with 10.5 percent of the vote.
Ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna and singer Sviatoslav Vakarchuk’s Voice (Golos) are expected to get 7.7 percent, 6.9 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.
The rest of the parties do not pass the 5-percent threshold for getting into the Rada, according to the Rating Group.
These include ex-Security Service of Ukraine Chief Ihor Smeshko’s Strength and Honor party with 3.8 percent; the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc, a splinter group that has separated from the Opposition Platform, with 3.1 percent, and populist Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party with 2.3 percent.
The nationalist Svoboda party, blogger Anatoly Shariy’s Shariy Party, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman’s Ukrainian Strategy, ex-Defense Minister Anatoly Grytsenko’s Civil Position, ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces and Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy’s Samopomich are trailing behind with 2.2 percent, 2 percent, 1.7 percent, 1.4 percent, 0.8 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
Zelensky has a 58 percent approval rating and a 19 percent disapproval rating.
Surprisingly, Zelensky has a 60 percent approval rating in western Ukraine – more than in central Ukraine (54 percent) and eastern Ukraine (49 percent). The highest approval rating – 63 percent – is in southern Ukraine.
Also, according to the poll, for the first time in many years, the number of those who believe Ukraine is moving in the right direction – 41 percent – is higher than the number of those who think it’s moving in the wrong one – 37 percent. This has never been the case since Rating Group started measuring the indicator in 2011.
