Ukrainian Citizens Prefer Current Form of Government

The Kyiv International Sociology Institute conducted an interesting survey during the last week of February, asking over 2,000 adult Ukrainians which form of government they prefer. The results of the poll are (margin of error: 2.2%):

Which of these forms of government would you prefer for Ukraine?

A parliamentary-presidential republic - 38%
A presidential-parliamentary republic - 21%
A presidential republic - 19%
A parliamentary republic - 7%
One-man rule - 2%
Not sure - 13%

The results are interesting because President Viktor Yushchenko views the current system as "problematic." Instead of having both the President and Prime Minister basically run the country, Yushchenko wants to turn Ukraine into a presidential republic. Yushchenko has already selected members for a National Constitutional Council (NCC) to draft a new body of law for Ukraine, including a possible change in government structure. Many of these members have political ties, which has raised questions regarding their ability to draft such a document in an objective manner.

If Yushchenko is serious about changing the government to a presidential republic, he has to convince a lot of people it is the right thing to do. If this recent poll is accurate, there is no way Yushchenko will get approval quickly. Therefore, he must win his re-election bid to have any chance at all of pulling this off.

I agree with Yushchenko that something in Ukraine's government has to change, I'm just not sure a presidential republic would be the best approach.