Nearly half of Ukrainians are in favor of holding early parliamentary elections, as is seen from a public opinion poll of 2,018 respondents conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Center sociological service on June 9-13, 2017, which results were presented in Kyiv on Thursday.

The poll showed that 48% of the respondents support the idea of early elections to the Verkhovna Rada, 35.4% are against it, and 16.7% are undecided.

In December 2016, the idea of early parliamentary elections was favored by 46%, while 36.6% were against it and 17.5% were undecided. In August 2016, the results were 35.4%, 45.3%, and 19.3% respectively.

If parliamentary elections were held next Sunday, the Batkivschyna party would be the favorite, as nearly 7.7% of all Ukrainians, or 11.2% of those willing to cast their ballots, would vote for it.

The Petro Poroshenko Solidarity Bloc would come in second with 6.9% of votes by all respondents or 9.3% by those who are determined to come to polling stations. The Civil Position party led by Anatoliy Hrytsenko would be supported by 5.9% (8.3%) and the Opposition Bloc by 5.7% (8.4%).

The parties Za Zhyttia (For Life) led by Vadym Rabinovych (7.7% and 5.2%), the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko (7.3% and 5%), and the Samopomich faction (5.8% and 4.2%) would also overcome the 5% election threshold.

The poll showed also that 21.5% of the respondents would not go to polling stations, and 17.2% were undecided or refused to say for whom they would vote (15.3% of those wishing to vote also did not answer).