The Sunday Show on Ukraine’s Upcoming Presidential Elections

This week on the Sunday Show, we take a look at how Ukraine’s preparations for the March 2019 presidential elections are shaping up. We’ll be breaking down the latest opinion polls and discussing some of the frontrunners, which includes former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy and former defense minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko. Incumbent President Poroshenko also appears to still be in running. We’ll be looking into his chances of reelection – something only one Ukrainian President before him has managed to achieve.

We’ll also be discussing voting tendencies. Current polls suggest that there is a significant number of Ukrainian citizens still undecided about who to vote for. There’s also a percentage of people who have already stated that they will not be voting. With trust in political parties and politicians seemingly at a low, we discuss how and if this is likely to change in the crucial months leading up to the elections.

Joining us in the studio to discuss all this, we have some of Ukraine’s leading sociologists Executive Research Director at Social Indicators Center Dr. Svitlana Khutka and Dr. Olga Balakireva, the Chairman of the Board at the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research after Olexander Yaremenko. Also speaking to us via Skype we have Director General of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology Volodymyr Paniotto.

Dr. Svitlana Khutka Research Director, Social Indicators, Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor, Stanford University (2015-2017)

Dr. Olga Balakireva

Chairman of the Board, Ukrainian Institute for Social Research after Olexander Yaremenko

Volodymyr Paniotto

Director General of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology