More than half of foreign experts support early election in Ukraine - poll

More than half of foreign experts (some 58%) are convinced that the early election in Ukraine is a democratic way out of the political and constitutional crisis in the country.

According to an UNIAN correspondent, Serhiy Taran, chairman of “Socioizmereniye” center for sociological and political research and director of the International Institute of Democracies, claimed this to a press conference in UNIAN.

According to him, the majority of polled experts positively assess the meaning of the early election for Ukraine. Only some 32% of those polled give other definitions to the early election. In particular, a British expert noted that, in addition to the election, Ukraine still needs other measures to solve the crisis. Another two experts, both from Russia, are confident that the snap poll may cause a further destabilization in the country, with aggravating the crisis.

Speaking about the most acceptable system of rule for Ukraine, some 37% of the polled experts believe that the PM-presidential system is the best, some 32% preferred the parliamentary-presidential system, and some 21% supported the presidential system.

Besides, asked whether Ukrainian politicians may be called European, the overwhelming majority of those polled (some 61%) said BYuT front-runner Yulia Tymoshenko corresponds to notion “a European-style politician”. Some 24% of those polled called Victor Yushchenko a European politician. An expert from Russia said the SPU leader Oleksander Moroz is a European politician. Two experts could not call European any of the Ukrainian politicians.

The poll was carried out in the course of the XVII Economic Forum in Krynica city of Poland during September 5-7 of 2007. 20 experts – forum participants from 10 countries were polled.