IRI publishes its first national poll in Armenia after the Second Karabakh war
On 10 March, the International Republican Institute (IRI) published the results of its national polls conducted in Armenia between 8 February and 16 February 2021. The sample included 1,510 Armenian citizens.
45% of the questioned said that Armenia was heading in the wrong direction, while 31% said that it was heading in the right direction and 21% were undecided over the country’s future. In regard to the citizen’s beliefs, the polls have shown that a high degree of uncertainty in the country prevails, with 24% believing that the future would be definitely better, 25% saying that it would be somewhat better, 25% of the citizen’s expressing fear for their future and 24% expressing total disbelief in the country’s future.
The institution with the most trust in the country was the army, with 50% of the questioned having a very favourable opinion on the institution, followed by the Human Rights Defenders Office (30%), the Armenian Apostolic Church (30%) and the prime minister’s office (29%). The most distrusted institutions were the political parties (51% had a very unfavourable opinion), the National Assembly (42%), the president’s office (40%) and the courts (35%).
Economy/unemployment was considered the most burning problem Armenia faces (11% first response, 10% second response), followed by political instability (12%, 7%), need for military reform (8%,4%) and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (9%,3%). To the question on what the government should focus on after 9 November trilateral ceasefire agreement, the most frequent answer was focusing on domestic issues such as economy, political stability and social issues (97% answered with “yes”), followed by the ensuring the secure return of the Armenian residents to Karabakh (92%) and the renegotiation of the ceasefire agreement (85%).
In regard to the question of holding snap parliamentary elections in the country, 57% of the questioned said that the elections should be held in spring 2021, 13% in summer of 2021, 13% in autumn 2021 and 7% after autumn 2021. To the question of who should oversee the snap elections, the current Armenian government was highlighted as the most trustworthy institution (34% absolutely would entrust it), followed by a caretaker government comprised of professionals (18%), a collaborative government consisting of the ruling party and the opposition (13%) and the transitional government consisting only of the opposition (6%). The ruling Civil Contract/My Step party enjoyed the biggest popularity amongst the questioned, with 33% saying that they would vote for them, followed by Prosperous Armenia (3%) and Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan (2%), while the other political forces in the country enjoyed only 1% trust from the questioned.
When it comes to Armenia’s media landscape, the most trusted sources of information were Public TV (16% first choice, 6% second choice), followed by Shant (10%, 7%), Armenia (9%,7%) the Armenian Radio Free Europe (Azatutyun, 8%, 3%) and Armnews (6%, 1%) with the other media channels in the country enjoying only 1% of trust.