BRITISH POPULUS POLLING CENTER UNVEILS FINDINGS OF ITS ARMENIAN SURVEY
Armenpress
Apr 20 2007
YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS: The British Populus polling center has
unveiled today the findings of its survey in Armenia that was designed
to find out voting intentions ahead of the May 12 parliamentary
elections. According to its results, 52 percent of eligible Armenians
will go to the polls on that day.
Some 2,000 Armenians were surveyed across the country between April
3-7. In response to a question who they would vote for if the elections
were held next Sunday, 31 percent said they would cast their ballots
for the Republican Party and 27 percent would cast their ballots for
the Prosperous Armenia.
The Orinats Yerkir of ex-parliament chairman Arthur Baghdasarian was
the third most popular party with 11 percent of respondents ready to
back it. Next in the row was the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF), which enjoyed only 8 percent of the popular support, while
the opposition National Unity could boast only of 7 percent of the
popular vote.
The survey has found also that the People’s Party (not to be confused
with the People’s Party of Armenia of Stepan Demirchian) could overcome
the five percent barrier. The rest of 14 percent of all votes went
to 14 other parties, contesting the elections.
These findings have been unveiled by Andrew Cooper from the Populus,
who said the discrepancy margin is about 2 percent. He, however,
added that these results are not a forecast of the upcoming polls,
but a reflection of the parties’ popularity at the time of the survey.
Forty-five of respondents said the country’s leadership had taken a
wrong course after previous 2003 parliamentary elections, while 34
percent had the opposite opinion.
"For comparison 30 percent of respondents in the USA and 40 percent
in the United Kingdom would say that their governments were on the
wrong track.
Therefore, in this sense, Armenians are more optimistic," Mr. Cooper
concluded.
Another optimistic note he noticed was that the majority believe that
one year later after these polls their lives would improve.
However, 43 percent of respondents do not think that the May 12
polls would be more fairer and more transparent than the 2003
elections. Twenty-five percent had the contrary opinion.
The survey also has found that immediate contacts between candidates
and voters and well-designed televised ads may have a bigger effect
on the latter.
But 50 percent said election campaigns have no impact on their
preferences at all.
Also 42 percent said they think the Republican Party is able to
solve the Karabakh conflict in a best pro-Armenian manner, 19 percent
believe it is the ARF that can do it and 14 percent that it is the
Prosperous Armenia.
Concerning the international acknowledgement of the Armenian
Genocide 29 percent said the Republican Party is able to press for
it effectively, 25 percent believe it is the ARF and 14 percent that
it is the Prosperous Armenia.
Thirty-seven percent believe the Prosperous Armenia has more resources
and is able to better solve the unemployment problem, 24 said it
is the Republican Party and 13 percent gave the ‘privilege’ to the
Orinats Yerkir. In general, in terms of resolving social problems
the Prosperous Armenia left others behind.
Concerning Armenia’s relations with its immediate and faraway friends,
the respondents named Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia as most unfriendly
nations, while the list of friends was topped by Russia, EU and France.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress