The press release was prepared by Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of KIIS

From December 1 to 9, 2024, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus", to which, at the request of the public organization Center for Strategic Communications "Forum", questions were added regarding Ukrainians' assessment of the activities of factions in parliament. By the method of telephone interviews (computer-assistedtelephoneinterviews, CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting) in all regions of Ukraine (the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine), 1,000 respondents were interviewed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived in the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The sample did not include residents of territories temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities (at the same time, some of the respondents are IDPs who moved from the occupied territories), and the survey was not conducted with citizens who left abroad after February 24, 2022.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10%, 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.

Under the conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. Factors that may affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions were previously cited by KIIS.

In general, we believe that the obtained results are still highly representative and allow a fairly reliable analysis of the public moods of the population.

During surveys, sociologists often study attitudes towards various institutions, including the Verkhovna Rada. At the same time, it is important to understand that the Verkhovna Rada consists of different factions and groups, and in reality, attitudes towards them can be quite different.

In this survey, we asked towards each faction (as well as the “Platforma Za Myr i Zhyttia” group, formed on the basis of the former “OPZZh” faction) whether the faction's activities are more likely to benefit Ukraine or more likely to hinder the development of the state? The results can be seen in the graph below.

In the case of all factions, there are more people who believe that this faction hinders the development of the state than those who believe that its activities benefit Ukraine. Respondents rated the activities of the “Yevropeiska Solidarnist” faction relatively best (36% believe that its activities benefit Ukraine, compared to 41% who believe that, on the contrary, hinder development) and “Holos” (29% versus 35%). Next comes the "Batkivshchyna" faction (25% versus 47%).

In the case of the “Sluha Narodu” faction, 18% believe that the faction's activities benefit Ukraine, while 65% believe that hinder development.

When asked about the group "Platforma Za Myr i Zhyttia", 15% expressed the opinion that its activities are useful for Ukraine, while 50% held the opposite opinion.

More than half of respondents – 55% – positively assess the activities of at least one faction from the list. However, there are 16% who, for each faction, noted that its activities “hinder” the development of Ukraine.

Graph 1. Assess the activities of factions in the Ukrainian parliament. In your opinion, does the activity of such a faction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine … rather benefit Ukraine or hinder the development of the state?

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

The Verkhovna Rada is traditionally perceived by Ukrainians as quite critical, but in this survey we see that the assessment of the activities of individual factions is better than the usual perception of the parliament as a whole. In addition, it is important that more than half of Ukrainians have a favorable attitude towards at least one faction / deputy group.

For the sake of fairness, it is worth recalling the rather decisive role of even imperfect parliaments in critical periods, such as in 1991, 2004, 2014. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why a chronically critical attitude towards parliament does not transform into a decrease in interest in democracy, and the vast majority of Ukrainians (74%) believe that Ukraine should have an influential parliament[1].

Let us hope that the necessary changes will take place on the path of European integration and that in the next surveys we will be able to record higher levels of satisfaction with the activities of both individual factions and the parliament as a whole.

Annex 1. Formulation of questions in the questionnaire

Assess the activities of factions in the Ukrainian parliament? In your opinion, does the activity of such a faction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine … rather benefit Ukraine or hinder the development of the state?