Pollsters predict smaller gap in support for Yanukovych, Tymoshenko in presidential run-off vote
Kyiv, January 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The gap between presidential candidates Viktor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko will close significantly in the second round of the presidential election on February 7, and they may each have a fifty-fifty chance of winning the run-off vote, according to the pollsters of the Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute of Social Studies.
"A greater part of the electorate who supported other candidates in the first round are, to some extent, inclined to support Tymoshenko. If the ballot were held today, around 50-51% would have voted for Yanukovych, and some 45-46% for Tymoshenko," Chair of the Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute of Social Studies Olha Balakireva said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
She said that the "issue could also concern a fifty-fifty option." She said that those who had not supported Tymoshenko and Yanukovych would most likely vote for "the lesser evil."
"This will most likely be the vote 'against,' [someone] rather than a vote 'for,' [someone]" Balakireva said.
She also said that there are certain voters who will go to the polls and will support neither Yanukovych nor Tymoshenko.
Balakireva said that according to a survey, 29% of Sergiy Tigipko's supporters are ready to vote for Tymoshenko in the second round of the election, and 37% for Yanukovych. As for Arseniy Yatseniuk's supporters, 45% of them are ready to vote for Tymoshenko and 18% for Yanukovych, while 52% of Viktor Yuschenko's supporters are more inclined to vote for Tymoshenko, and 8% for Yanukovych, she said.
She also said that a portion of the voters remained undecided. The margin of error is 2.2%.
The Choice 2010 survey was held at 402 polling stations on election day in order to receive a high level of data accuracy. Voters were surveyed immediately after they left polling stations. A total of 804 interviewers questioned 17,512 voters who casted their ballots. Twenty-four percent of voters declined to participate in the survey.