Lviv residents support Yushchenko over Tymoshenko, according to new poll

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Lviv residents prefer President Viktor Yushchenko and his Our Ukraine People's Union party to his partner in the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko, a new poll reported.

While Mr. Yushchenko commands more support than Ms. Tymoshenko, Lviv residents are reluctant to blame her for their split, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology that was financed by Western companies and educational institutions.

If parliamentary elections were to take place on October 30, 38 percent of Lviv city residents would vote for the Our Ukraine People's Union political party led by Mr. Yushchenko, while 23 percent would vote for Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivschyna Party.

Oleksander Moroz's Socialist Party would get 4 percent of the city's votes, and 7 percent of Lviv residents wouldn't vote for any political party.

Regarding the political crisis that resulted in the September 8 dismissal of the Cabinet of Ministers, the largest number of Lviv residents blame Mr. Yushchenko's circle - 35 percent of respondents said politicians from the president's team are responsible. The poll did not identify any specific politician.

Only about 10 percent blame Mr. Yushchenko himself and even fewer respondents, 8.4 percent, consider Ms. Tymoshenko responsible for the crisis.

Mr. Yushchenko received 36 percent of support from poll respondents in his conflict with Ms. Tymoshenko, who was supported by 20 percent of respondents.

Among local politicians, Andrii Sadovyi and Vasyl Kuibida have the highest ratings.

If citizens were to vote for the Lviv mayor on October 30, Mr. Sadovyi would get 26.8 percent of votes. Mr. Kuibida wouldn't be far behind with 26.1 percent of votes, the poll said.

Lviv's current mayor, Liubomyr Buniak, would secure only 1.2 percent of the vote, the poll said.

The institute polled 706 respondents between October 1 and 10; the margin of error was not more than 4 percent.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 30, 2005, No. 44, Vol. LXXIII

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