The society does not seriously trust politicians and parties, says Yuriy Yakymenko.

Opinion polls and presidential ratings of Ukrainian politicians indicate that Ukrainians need new leaders, — Deputy Director General and Director of Political and Legal Programs of the Razumkov Centre Yuriy Yakymenko said in the commentary to “Glavred”.

“According to our new opinion polls, the question of whether new faces, parties and leaders are necessary for Ukraine, the majority of respondents always answers “yes, we need”. On this basis we convinced that the request for the new faces in Ukrainian politics exists. This request is also confirmed by the low level of trust and approval ratings of those people who are seen as presidential candidates — in fact even the largest figures fluctuate within 10%, says political expert.

He stressed that the request exists, but there is a problem with the proposal: “If you look at our recent studies, more than 50% of citizens did not choose any candidates: the voters choose the category “another politician” (10%); “would not participate in the elections” (20%); “Difficult to say” (19%). So, half of the respondents simply do not know who they will vote for, or under current circumstances they don’t see the sense in participating in the elections.

Where could new leaders come from? First of all, they should have been prepared from the same political class, from the political elites, MPs, members of the government who are at the top of our political system, and also perhaps, within non-parliamentary parties whose leaders are well-known and conduct public activities, Yuriy Yakymenko said.

However, despite the request for the new politicians, the society does not seriously trust politics as a sphere of activity, its representatives and political institutions, in particular political parties. This situation of general mistrust prevents the emergence of new leaders, said Director of Political and Legal Programs of the Razumkov Centre.

In addition, in this situation the factor of media plays a significant role. How people will know about new politicians when media mainly talk about the former ones? First of all, the source of political news and information for the majority of citizens are the country’s leading TV channels: the people could consider as candidates for elections those politicians whom they see on the screen. If potential new leaders do not appear on the screens, then it is very difficult for them to keep in touch with people using other channels of communication, the expert said.

In such conditions, taking into account three factors, such as absence of credible alternatives, distrust towards politicians in general and closed channels of informing people about the availability of other proposals, turns out that we continue to vote for those people who are quite well-known in domestic politics, Yuriy Yakymenko summed up.

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