KIEV, Oct. 8 – President Viktor Yanukovych faces a growing challenge from three opposition groups ahead of October 28 elections now that their combined popular support has for the first time outpaced support for his Regions Party.

The balance tilted after the nationalist Svoboda party significantly increased support over the past few weeks, with its rating rising above the 5% threshold needed for entering Parliament.

Svoboda and two other opposition groups, Udar and Batkivshchyna, now enjoy total support from 36.2% of respondents, while the Regions Party and its ally Communist Party have scored a total of 33.4%, according to the poll by Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives/KIIS.

If the trend continues for the next three weeks, the opposition parties would easily outscore the ruling Regions Party and its Communist ally in the party-list vote that decides on 225 seats in the 450-seat Parliament.

Another 225 seats will be decided in majority districts across Ukraine and the opposition groups have recently made progress in discussions over support for single candidates to defeat their counterparts from the ruling party.

The Regions Party led the poll with 23.3% support, followed by Udar’s 16%, Batkivshchyna’s 15.1%, the Communist Party’s 10.1% and Svoboda’s 5.1%, according to the poll.

Some 24% of respondents said they were still undecided, an unusually great number three weeks before the vote, underscoring the voters’ cautious sentiment and leaving room for surprises.

A similar poll by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives/Razumkov Center in August showed support for the Regions Party at 28.1%, Batkivshchyna’s at 25.6%, Udar’s at 11.5%, the Communist Party’s at 8.2% and Svoboda’s at 3.8%.

A party needs to score at least 5% of the vote to enter Parliament.

The rise of Svoboda, which runs on a nationalist platform, is significant that may create serious problems for the ruling party.

“Svoboda’s score will be the greatest surprise at these elections,” blogger YaSkeptyk wrote on the blog.

Another blogger, Volodymyr Ivanovych, said: “Only Svoboda! Let’s take Ukraine back from the hands of criminals. Let’s give Ukraine a chance to become a prosperous and a civilized European country.”

The poll was conducted among 2,043 respondent between September 18 and October 5 with a margin of error at 2.2%, according to Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives/KIIS. (tl/ez)