KYIV. Aug 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – 48% of the polled citizens of Ukraine are sure that the main threat in the work of the authorities in the next three years is decisions that contradict the Constitution of Ukraine, according to the data of a sociological study conducted by the Info Sapiens research agency commissioned by the Center for Joint Action in April-May 2021.

According to the results of the study, presented at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday, the second biggest threat, according to Ukrainians, is a potential parliamentary crisis. According to the survey, 41% of respondents think so. At the same time, every fourth (24% of respondents) fears an excessive concentration of power in the hands of the president.

The majority of Ukrainians surveyed (45%) named the Verkhovna Rada the agency of power that poses the greatest threat to democracy. At the same time, some 15% of citizens consider the president the greatest threat, some 12% named the Cabinet of Ministers, and 23% of respondents could not answer the question.

Researchers also draw attention to a certain correlation between which threats citizens consider priority and, for example, their education. Thus, survey participants with higher education (53%) are still more inclined to consider unconstitutional acts of the authorities as dangerous for the development of democracy in Ukraine compared to respondents with basic education (35%). At the same time, Ukrainians with higher education are afraid of the growing influence of the security forces.

"The dynamics regarding the greatest threats to Ukraine's democracy in settlements is interesting. In villages, where the probability of meeting law enforcement officers is much lower than in other settlements, they are much less afraid of the growth of the influence of power structures (26%) compared with residents of large cities (36%). Residents of cities with a population of more than 500,000 are more afraid of the excessive concentration of power in the hands of the president (31%) compared to residents of villages (from 20%)," head of the analytical team of the Center for Joint Action Maria Levonova said.

The survey was conducted in two waves: the CATI method (telephone interviews with calls to mobile phone numbers, computer-assisted telephone interviews) on April 19 to April 27, 2021 and the CAPI method (personal interviews at home with a respondent using a tablet, computer-assisted personal interviews) May 7 to May 27, 2021.

The sample of the conducted research is 2,000 respondents and is representative of the population of Ukraine aged 16 and over by gender, age, size of the settlement and region according to the State Statistics Service as of January 1, 2019. The maximum theoretical margin is 2.2%.