Russian experts on Armenian voters’ preferences

The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (http://wciom.com/) conducted an opinion poll in Armenia on the threshold of parliamentary elections scheduled for May 6.

The order for the poll was placed by the Armenia-based Shant TV Company.

The respondents were offered the following question “Should the elections be held this Sunday, which political party would you prefer?”

Thirty-two percent of the respondents favored the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), 27% the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), 5% the Rule of Law Party. The Heritage party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) received 4% each, the opposition bloc Armenia National Congress (ANC) 3%, and the Communist Party of Armenia 2%.

According to the poll results, the PAP is the conducting the most active election campaign.

At a Friday press conference, Valeri Fyodorov, Director of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, noted that 54% of the respondents were keeping up with the PAP’s election campaign and 83% of them liked it.

The ruling RPA is the second: 45% of the respondents kept up with its election campaign, and 75% of them liked it.
The RPA is followed by the Rule of Law party – 39% and 60% respectively.

The poll was conducted throughout Armenia, April 4 to 13, and involved 1,600 respondents. The error margin was within 2.5%.
As regards the parties most likely to get into parliament, 90% of the respondents named the PAP, 88% the RPA, 50% the Rule of Law party, 31% the ARF-D and 22% the Heritage party.

The respondents also expressed their opinion of the Armenian leader’s activities. Forty-one percent of the respondents gave a high mark to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, 33% approve of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s work and 27% approve of the Armenian government’s activities.

Fifty-five per cent of the respondents believe their votes cannot change anything.

Although 72% of the respondents stated their intention to take part in the voting, Fyodorov made the following remark: “Promised marriage is not de facto marriage.”