Zelenskiy loses more ground in the polls as his Servant of the People approval falls to 26%

Zelenskiy loses more ground in the polls as his Servant of the People approval falls to 26%
Servant of the People enjoyed a popularity rating of over 65% when it was elected in July 2019, but that has fallen to 26% now / Ratings group
By bne IntelliNews August 7, 2020

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s political party Servant of the People (SOTP) approval ratings in the polls slipped again to 26%, according to a survey by the Ratings Group released on August 6.

Exactly a year after SOTP took over the Verkhovna Rada, the party has seen its popularity slide as it failed to deliver on many of his promised reforms. Ukraine’s donors fear that Zelenskiy is now backsliding on the reform agenda and worry that oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and his peers have captured the government.

SOTP still has a clear lead over its political rivals but the gap is narrowing steadily. SOTP won an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections last August and has a clear majority and a mandate to carry out a radical reform agenda. However, Kolomoisky has been using his influence in the party where he control more than a dozen deputies to hi-jack some reform efforts and to interfere with votes he doesn't like. Kolomoisky is seen to be behind an effort to derail the passage of the so-called anti-Kolomoisky banking law that was signed on May 18 and was a precondition for winning the new International Monetary Fund (IMF) $5bn Stand by agreement (SBA).

The poll also showed the number of Ukrainians that think the country is going in the “wrong” direction has risen to 68% since a low of 18% in the second quarter of 2019 when Zelenskiy was elected president in a landslide victory. That is still below the level during former President Petro Poroshenko term of office when the share of those thinking Ukraine was going the wrong way was consistently in the 70%, but Zelenskiy’s results are not far off that level.

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