Republic
03.02.2006
If the presidential elections took place today in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko would win an overwhelming majority of votes. According to the sociological poll conducted by the institute of social and political studies under the presidential administration of the Republic of Belarus, 76.7 per cent of the respondents stated they would vote for the incumbent head of state. About 2 per cent would vote for other contenders.
The results of the poll attest that the majority of the population approves of the activity of Alexander Lukashenko at the post of the president. Thus, 87.5 per cent of the respondents evaluate it positively or rather positively (respectively 52.9 per cent and 34.6 per cent).
According to the overwhelming majority of the questioned (88.3 per cent) Alexander Lukashenko keeps his election promises: 36.6 per cent of the respondents believe that he consistently keeps his promises, 51.7 per cent – tries his best to keep the promises. Only 3 per cent of the questioned assert that the president fails to keep his promises.
According to the poll, the forthcoming presidential elections arouse interest among adult persons in the republic: 73.1 per cent of the respondents are very interested in the elections (64.8 per cent in 2001), 12.1 per cent – are not very interested, only 1.5 per cent – are not interested at all and 13 per cent found it difficult to answer. Thus, 85.2 per cent of the respondents show interest in the forthcoming presidential elections. In other words, voters really consider the presidential elections to be most important socio-political event in Belarus in 2006.
The respondents were also asked the question “Do you find it important who will be elected president of the Republic of Belarus?”. Some 82.1 per cent of the polled answered “it is of great importance” (in 2001 – 72.6 per cent) and 12.2 per cent chose the variant “it is important but not of vital importance”. It means that it is important for the absolute majority of the population (94.3 per cent) who will be elected head of state.
The absolute majority of the population (89.2) is also confident that the living standards of people depend to a great extent on who the president of the country is (in 2001 – 80.3 per cent). This is why at present 92.1 per cent of voters from all regions and social groups intend to take part in the elections (in 2001 – 86.7 per cent).
At the same time the sociological poll shows that 43.5 per cent of respondents is sure that the presidential elections will be fair and open (to compare, some 21.3 per cent in 2001). Almost the same number of respondents (45,9 per cent) admits that there might be some minor violations which will not affect the results of the elections. Only 5.9 per cent of citizens declared that serious violations might happen at several polling stations which might affect the results of the future elections (some 20,2 per cent in 2001).
A total of 1583 people of various socio-professional and age groups in all oblast and regional centers, major cities and villages were questioned during the poll.