17% of Ukrainians, questioned in September, consider that the presidential form of government is the best for Ukraine, one third supports the presidential-parliamentary form of government, one fourth supports the parliamentary-presidential form of government, 5% - the parliamentary, 4% - the dictatorship, and 18% - have not decided on the matter.
It is necessary to mention that compared with the results of research conducted in April 2010, support of the presidential form of government has decreased by 1.5 times - from 26% to 17%, while support of the parliamentary-presidential form of government, on the contrary, has increased from 16% to 23%.
Tendencies concerning the growth of support for strengthening of presidential power are only characteristic of Donbas; in other regions support for the parliamentary-presidential or the parliamentary model has increased.
Among the biggest supporters of strengthening of presidential power are voters of the Party of Regions and Strong Ukraine; among the biggest opponents are voters of Batkivshchyna and Front for Change.
Also respondents were able to determine the optimal (in their opinion) way to appoint the Prime Minister. Thus, according to 18% of respondents, the president has to appoint the head of the government without approval of the Parliament. Almost one-third of respondents supported the existing procedure of appointment of the Prime Minister (the candidature of the Prime Minister is introduced to the President by the parliamentary majority. Then the President introduces it to the Parliament, where deputies vote to make the final decision). 8% of respondents believe that the parliament should directly appoint the head of the government without President’s consent, while 29% would want to elect the Prime Minister in elections. 14% of respondents could not decide on the matter.
By the way, if the elections of the Prime Minister took place in the near future, provided that this post is not claimed by V. Yanukovych, as he is the President and Y. Tymoshenko, as she is the leader of the opposition, 20.6% would support the candidacy of S. Tihipko, 17,2% - M. Azarov, 12.5% - A. Yatsenyuk. Another 2.8% would vote for R. Akhmetov, 1.9% - for V. Yushchenko, 0.8% - for Y. Yekhanurov, 0.7% - for B. Kolesnikov, 0.4% - for Y. Boiko, 0.3% - for A. Klyuyev. 8% of respondents would support another candidate, 18% - would not support any or would not vote, 16.8% could not decide on the matter.
Compared with the results of research conducted in March 2010, support for the candidature of S. Tihipko has decreased almost twofold - from 39,4% to 20,6%, support for A. Yatsenyuk has decreased from 14.9 to 12.5%. Instead, support for M. Azarov has somewhat increased - from 15.6 to 17.2%. As for other candidates, there are no noticeable changes. The population of the North, the Centre and the East wants to see S. Tihipko as the head of the government most of all, while the population of the South and Donbas prefers M. Azarov.
The idea to abolish constitutional amendments, which were adopted in 2004 and acted for the past five years, provided that as a result the President will have greater power, is supported by 31% of respondents, is not supported by 50% of respondents. 9% do not care what happens to the Constitution, every fifth respondent has not decided on this matter.
Positive evaluations of the idea to cancel political reforms-2004 prevail over negative only in Donbas and only among supporters of the Party of Regions, but this does not mean that the issue has proceeded to the electoral plane. Thus, one quarter of residents of the West and the Centre of Ukraine support the idea to cancel political reforms-2004, the same can be said about 15% of voters of the Batkivshchyna, a quarter of voters of Freedom and Front for Change. On the other hand, 20% of supporters of the Party of Regions and over 40% of supporters of the CPU and Strong Ukraine are against the abolition of political reform-2004.
More detailed analysis of the results confirms the thesis that some citizens of Ukraine are currently poorly aware of the issues of the constitutional model and political reforms as such. Thus, one fourth of supporters of the presidential form of government believe that the best way appoint the Prime Minister is through the parliament, which is not expected in this model.
Also, more than a quarter of supporters of the presidential form of government are against the abolition of political reforms-2004, and that decision precisely leads to the mentioned model. On the other hand almost every tenth supporter of the parliamentary-presidential and the parliamentary models support the idea of canceling political reforms-2004.
The data on diversity in respondents’ replies indicates their unwillingness to make a clear choice of a certain direction because of their low awareness of the topic and therefore a low level of understanding of the issue. On the other hand, subjective factors have a significant influence on ideological convictions of citizens. For example, a respondent who supports the presidential model may not support the current Head of State, or vice versa a respondent who supports the parliamentary model may distrust this institution in Ukraine.
All of the mentioned factors confirm that the issue of changing the constitutional model is very controversial for Ukraine and requires, above all, a broad explanatory work among the population.
Moreover, making the issue a part of the agenda may cause social instability.
Thus, one third of respondents believe that if presidential powers are changed, it is necessary to conduct elections of the Head of State, 45% - do not support this thesis and 22% - have not decided on the matter.
Almost 60% of respondents have a negative attitude towards the idea of extending powers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by 2015. Only 19% of respondents support this idea. 22% have not decided. The idea of transferring the parliamentary elections has the biggest number of supporters in the South and Donbas, although in these regions as well negative evaluations of this decision exceed positive.
It should also be noted that in the Party of Regions there is the largest number of voters who have not decided on the issue of re-electing the Head of State in case of change in his powers, and on the issue of continuing powers of the current composition of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine till 2015. Thus, they are still hesitating to support these initiatives; it makes the ambiguity of their attitude evident.
The target audience of the research: the population of Ukraine aged from 18 and older. Optional quantity: 2000 respondents. The methods of investigation: personal formalized interview according to the questionnaire (face to face). Measure of inaccuracy for the values close to 50% is less than 3%, for the values close to 30% – less than 2,6%, for the values close to 10% – less than 1,8. The period of completion: 9-16 of September 2010.
The oblast’ distribution:
West: Volyns’ka, Transcarpathia, Ivano–Frankivs’ka, L’vivs’ka, Rivnens’ka, Ternopil’s’ka, Chernivets’ka.
Centre: Vinnyts’ka, Kirovograds’ka, Poltavs’ka, Khmel’nyts’ka, Cherkas’ka.
North: Kyiv, Kyivs’ka, Zhytomyrs’ka, Sums’ka, Chernihivs’ka.
South: AR Crimea, Odes’ka, Khersons’ka, Mykolaivs’ka, Sevastopol
East: Dnipropetrovs’ka, Zaporiz’ka, Kharkivs’ka.
Donbass: Donets’ka, Luhans’ka.
