Poll results: Tomos becomes event of the year

On December 25th, a field sociological survey was held this year. According to it, the central event of the year in Ukraine was the unification of the Churches. This was stated at the conference 2018: Results and Forecasts which was broadcast by the ZIK TV channel, said Iryna Bekeshkina, Director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation named after Ilko Kucheriv.

“Yesterday we were handed over the latest results of sociological research that was held on December 25. I do not think that someone else would carry out a poll in such short terms,” said Bekeshkina.

She said that people were asked about recent developments in Ukraine and what influence they had on electoral public opinion.

“We put certain questions on a permanent basis and monitored them in this way. The main event of the year, of course, was the unification of churches – the Tomos. I want to note that the issues were open and people were able to enter their words, the name of the event or the name of the policy. Therefore, the figures in the end are not large, but important,” she said.

People polled were also asked about the events abroad, and we can conclude that Ukrainians know little about them.

“The protests in France were said to be an event of the year, with seven per cent of respondents’ vote. Sanctions against Russia as an international event gained four per cent, events in Armenia – three per cent. Therefore, we can conclude that our people are not very knowledgeable in international events. For this reason, there is a kind of ideological isolationism, because people are only interested in what is going on inside the country,” she said.

Also among the questions were those about the Politician of the Year in Ukraine. As in the past year, the rating was headed by the current President of Ukraine.

“In 2018, like last year, Petro Poroshenko was named the Politician of the Year. Last year, he had ten percent, and this year he received 16 percent.

Following him, Yulia Tymoshenko got 12 percent of the vote, and last year she had only 6 percent, Oleh Lyashko had 6 percent, and last year he had 5 percent. Saakashvili held second place last year, whom few of the respondents now remember. But it's interesting that 25 percent of the citizens did not name any candidate. Therefore, the second and third places are changing, but Petro Poroshenko holds a leading position at all percentages,” said Bekeshkina.