KYIV. Apr 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The vast majority of Ukrainians (59.5%) oppose holding both presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine in 2024, that is, during the war, according to the results of a sociological survey conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Center on March 21-27 and presented at the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on Wednesday.

At the same time, 22.1% of respondents support the idea of holding elections, 18.4% found it difficult to answer.

The relative majority of respondents (42%) are convinced that a change of power during the war will hinder victory in the war with Russia, while only 12.6% believe that it will help to prevail. At the same time, 21.2% of Ukrainians are of the opinion that the elections will not affect the approach of victory in any way.

Also, the relative majority of respondents (45.2%) are convinced that elections during the war will divide Ukrainian society. At the same time, 11.9% have the opposite opinion and believe that the elections, on the contrary, will be able to consolidate Ukrainian society. At the same time, much more Ukrainians (26.1%) believe that the elections will not have any impact on the consolidation of Ukrainian society, and 16.9% found it difficult to answer.

At the same time, Scientific Director of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation Oleksiy Haran noted during the press conference that the main argument against holding elections during the war in Ukraine is not a legal ban, which can be lifted if such a decision is made by the Constitutional Court, but the inability to ensure competitiveness of election participants, however, a decrease in the rating of the current government may lead to an increase in support for holding elections.

"My main argument against holding elections is that it coincides with citizens' assessments that if we want a real campaign, competitive, not just to check a box, then obviously this presupposes a very tough election fight, which we really cannot afford now. But I think that if the government acts the way it acts now, that is, without responding to criticism from society, without reacting properly to corruption scandals, then its rating will fall, and accordingly the proportion of those who will say that let's we will be re-elected. Because if there is no trust, then, obviously, this opportunity will grow," he said.

At the same time, the analyst emphasized that the development of the situation will depend primarily on the situation at the front.

"It is clear that if we go into a state of frozen conflict, then the chances of holding these elections increase. And if it happens, as now, with the presence of martial law, then it is obvious that we will not be able to hold them in the near future," Haran said.

The survey was conducted using the face-to-face method among 2,020 respondents aged 18 years and over in all government-controlled territories of Ukraine where hostilities are not taking place, using a stratified multi-stage sample using random sampling at the first stages of sampling and a quota method for selecting respondents at the final stage. The structure of the sample population reproduces the demographic structure of the adult population of the territories where the survey was conducted as of the beginning of 2022 (by age, gender, type of settlement). The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%; additional systematic sampling deviations may be due to the consequences of Russian aggression.