Page 7 - UKRRptOct18

although he has yet to officially throw his hat into the ring.
Recently, Balazs Jarabik, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told bne I ntelliNews that he would question whether Vakarchuk really wants to run. "This is a huge effort with a lot of strings attached and I am not sure he is ready for it", Jarabik said.
Timothy Ash, a senior sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, wrote in a note in August that Vakarchuk still remains "the dark horse candidate for the election". "If he decides to run, I think he would win," Ash added.
Volodymyr Zelensky, a comic who plays the role of a spoof president in a televised show, who has not yet announced his intention to run for president, but has 6.1% of support among those who intend to vote, if he chose to stand, according to the survey.
"For Zelensky this is a show, he has nothing to lose even though he would not succeed to gather enough votes," Jarabik said. "I have my doubts about his success, as so far there is no sign of a serious campaign; he has no team, no programme or even political opinions. Even though he has the potential to be a Ukrainian Beppe Grillo, he does not resemble his early days because of the lack of seriousness."
The nationwide survey of the Ukrainian population was carried out from August 16 to August 22, 2018 in all regions of Ukraine except for Crimea and the rebel-held territories of the Donbas region. Some 2,019 respondents aged 18 years were interviewed. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%.
President election poll Sept 21, poll of % those to vote (% those who responded)
Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko
18
(13)
Civil Position Party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko
10.4
(7.5)
incumbent President Petro Poroshenko
9.9
(7.1)
For Life Party leader Vadym Rabinovych
8.8%
(6.4%)
Musician and social activist Svyatoslav Vakarchuk
8.7%
(6.3%)
Source: Social Monitoring Center and the Oleksandr Yaramenko Ukrainian Institute for Sociological Research
7 UKRAINE Country Report October 2018 www.intellinews.com