Turning the pages back... October 17, 1999 (10/17/04)

Turning the pages back...

October 17, 1999

Five years ago, The Ukrainian Weekly reported: "If Ukrainians were to go to the polls today to choose their next president, their choice would be the incumbent, President Leonid Kuchma, according to the results of three independent sociological surveys."

Although the current president was favored to lead in the first round of voting, reported Roman Woronowycz of our Kyiv Press Bureau on October 17, 1999, none of the polls showed that he was capable of obtaining the mandatory 50 percent-plus support required by law. Therefore a second-round run-off was likely to be required on November 14.

The findings were presented on October 14 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the Ukrainian Sociological Service and the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research in conjunction with the Social Monitoring Center. All three surveys put Mr. Kuchma well ahead of the pack in the first round. The polls, whose margins of error varied from 2 percent to 3 percent, showed the incumbent with 29 to 31 percent electoral support.

Mr. Kuchma was followed by Progressive Socialist candidate Natalia Vitrenko with 14-15 percent support and Communist Party candidate Petro Symonenko with 11-13 percent.

None of the Kaniv Four candidates - Oleksander Moroz (Socialist), Yevhen Marchuk (nominated by a bloc of rightist parties), Oleksander Tkachenko (Peasant Party) and Cherkasy Mayor Volodymyr Oliinyk - who had pledged to choose a single candidate from the group, had strong voter support. The Ukrainian Sociological Service poll indicated that Mr. Moroz had the support of 9 percent of respondents.

Source: "New polls indicate Kuchma still leads the pack," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 17, 1999, Vol. LXVII, No. 42.

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