Party of Regions has lowest appeal among undecided voters

The Party of Regions has the least potential to attract voters from political parties that might not overcome the 5% barrier for entry into parliament in October’s election, GfK Ukraine reported yesterday. The survey found that 35% of Ukrainians that planned to vote had not yet decided which party to vote for.

Undecided voter conversion index*

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Udar Party                                 1.87
Communist Party                       1.86
Fatherland (United Opposition)   1.39
Party of Regions                        1.15
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* Ratio of potential voters for this party of total undecided voters. 
Source: GfK Ukraine

Brad Wells: The low attractiveness for the Party of Regions, according to this survey, is likely to result of the polarizing policies and strongarm tactics its politicians have used against opponents since President Viktor Yanukovych came to power in 2010. This strategy, we have held, might be playing well with its power base in Eastern Ukraine, but has not won it any new friends – in fact quite the contrary, it seems to be pushing sympathy to the opposition. This presents an opportunity for opposition parties ahead of the October parliamentary election to make inroads and we think it will still pick up some points in opinion polls, but ultimately we do not expect it to be enough to gain a majority in the next parliament.