62% of Ukrainians believe that elections should only be held after the war is over, according to a poll published by the International Republican Institute (IRP) on Oct. 24.
According to the results of the survey, only 22% of respondents prefer to see elections take place as early as March 2024, 6% would like to see elections take place as early as September 2024, and 3% in March 2025, if the war is still ongoing at those times.
A vast majority of respondents believe that Ukrainian diaspora communities should participate in Ukrainian elections, with 70% of respondents believing it is "very important" or "somewhat important" that Ukrainians outside the country vote in any upcoming elections, as opposed to 28% of respondents believing that the issue is "somewhat not important" or "not important at all."
Under Ukraine's Constitution, elections are prohibited while the country is in a state of martial law.
In addition to questions posed about upcoming elections, respondents were also asked about Ukrainians' support for being included in NATO.
79% of Ukrainians would vote in a referendum to join NATO, if one was held, with 5% intending to vote against joining the bloc of nations. The results highlight a 20 percentage point increase since April 2022, when 59% of respondents supported Ukraine joining NATO.
When asked about respondents' support for Ukrainian government officials, President Zelensky topped the list of support with 82% of respondents indicating they "approve" of the work the President is doing, down slightly from 89% in February 2023.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba scored second on the list with 71% of respondents approving his performance, followed by Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, with 59% of respondents approving of his performance.
A random sample of 2,000 Ukrainians respondents was conducted September 9-12 through computer-assisted telephone interviews. The results are deemed accurate within 2.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
