Support for Zelensky and Servants of the People dropping

A new poll by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology
shows support for both president Zelensky and the ruling Servant of the People
party slipping compared to recent months. The poll was conducted by telephone
over Jan. 20-21.

If the election for the president were held last
Sunday, President Zelensky would garner votes from 23.5% of those who already
know who they would vote for, versus 20.9% for former president Poroshenko.
Former PM Yuliya Tymoshenko ranks third, with 11.8% of voters who are sure.
Poroshenko’s rating climbed more than the margin of error, as did that of Ihor
Smeshko, whose rating had dipped to 6.8% of committed voters in mid-December.
Smeshko would now receive 9.6% of the votes of those who were sure.

Would-be candidates losing voter share include
President Zelensky, down within the margin of error from 26.2% in December to
23.5%, Dmytro Razumkov, down from 8.1% to 5.0%, and Oleh Tyahnybok, down from
3.1% to 1.1%.

Among parties, movers outside of the margin of error include
Poroshenko’s European Solidarity Party, up from 15.4% in December to 18.9%,
making it currently the most popular political party. Zelensky’s Servant of the
People Party dropped from 17.4% to 13.7%. Furthermore, European Solidarity is
increasingly considered to be the main opposition party in Ukrainian politics,
with 32.3% of respondents viewing the party in this way.

Support for Zelensky running for a second term is
dropping with 30.3% of respondents saying that they would support him, versus
34.3% in November and 33.7% in December.

James Hydzik: The polling
was done just after Poroshenko’s return to Ukraine, during which the judiciary
seemed cowed, and Zelensky’s comments regarding the fact that people should
start planning their summer vacations instead of worrying about the threat of
war.

Poroshenko’s return was seen by some analysts as
taking the wind out of the sails of Dmytro Razumkov, which the poll indicates
has indeed happened. However, Razumkov’s rating is still currently high enough
to keep him in the running, unless Poroshenko continues gaining support. The
presidential election is still two years away, and Zelensky is not in a
terminal dive, though the prospects of his own and his party’s ratings gaining
in popularity seem very thin at the moment.