Poll Finds Ukrainians Doubt Effectiveness of Interim Government

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Voice of America

KYIV — An opinion poll released Wednesday by a U.S. democracy group finds widespread doubts and worries among Ukrainians who think their country is in the grip of chaos and don't believe the government is effective.

The poll was carried out by the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), which has been conducting polls in Ukraine regularly since 1994.

The pro-democracy and election-assistance non-profit receives most of its funding from USAID and the United Nations.

It shows 80 percent of respondents from Ukraine’s troubled east said they considered the Western-oriented interim government in Kyiv, formed after the February ouster of Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych, illegitimate.


Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine-abroad/voice-of-america-poll-finds-ukrainians-doubt-effectiveness-of-interim-government-345760.html

[pampango]

1. Nice find, dipsydoodle. From the IFES that conducted the poll.

More than twice as many Ukrainians believe that Ukraine would be better off with closer economic and political relations with Europe than with Russia (44% vs. 21%); while 21% believe that Ukraine should have good relations with both, according to a new survey conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Despite the fact that a majority of Ukrainians describe the country as being divided (73%), a clear majority of respondents also believes that Ukrainians will be able to repair their divisions in the long run (74%).

Most Ukrainians, including significant majorities in the East and South, do not believe that the Russian language is discriminated against in Ukraine (82%). Also, just over half of respondents believe that Russian should either be an official state language (27%) or a recognized regional language (24%), with those figures being significantly higher in the East.

A majority of respondents in all regions of the country say that they are very (56%) or somewhat likely (25%) to participate in the May 25 presidential elections. Historically in Ukraine, actual voter turnout on Election Day has been closer to the number of “very likely to vote” in IFES pre-election surveys.

http://www.ifes.org/Content/Publications/Survey/2014/2014_Ukraine_Survey.aspx

[jtuck004]

2. "Ukrainians who think their country is in the grip of chaos and don't believe the government is

effective".

Don't feel alone.

[newthinking]

3. I have been trolled here for saying exactly what these polls confirm

Sharma said the focus groups participating in the poll instead showed deep frustration with the way Yanukovych’s government, which had its power base in Ukraine’s east, was ousted by pro-European activists in the Maidan, Kyiv’s central plaza.

“In the focus groups people would say, ‘when people march in the Maidan in Kyiv to throw Yanukovych out, it is called self-expression, [but] when people do it here they are called separatists and terrorists,'" Sharma said.

"They feel they have legitimate grievances that are not being addressed by the government,” he said.

Critics are faulting the government for failing to appoint prominent easterners to the cabinet.

In the polling data the interim government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is seen by eastern Ukrainians as representing western Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalists.