MINSK, 16 December (BelTA) – The sociological research “Belarus. A vision of the future”, results of which have already been published, was not initially intended for public consumption. It was intended for the country's leadership, BelTA learned from Press Secretary of the Belarus President Natalya Eismont.
Natalya Eismont said: “A lot of important work has been done within the framework of the opinion poll that was published today. It is not the first opinion poll and not the last one. Such polls with different scopes and content are published by mass media. Some proceed in a non-public manner. By the way, this opinion poll was not originally intended for the general public. It was supposed to offer an analysis of ongoing trends in our society to the country's leadership. But the president decided to publish the results for public consumption.”
Natalya Eismont said she is convinced that results of the opinion poll will be useful for the power vertical and will be interesting for all citizens.
The press secretary went on saying: “Certainly, we were primarily interested in answers to today's most topical issues. For instance, our society's readiness for the constitutional referendum, the attitude to the refugees and so on. If we continue talking about the content of the poll, we see (the head of state has already talked about it) that our Belarusian society changed in 2021. Fortunately, for the better. I think today we can say that our people have recognized what they have and have also recognized what they can lose.”
“Facts on the table. Figures have been published. Everyone can look, analyze, and make their own conclusions,” Natalya Eismont said.
During the government conference held on 16 December to discuss the counteraction of sanctions against the country Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko also mentioned that an opinion poll had been carried out in the country. “We will publish opinion surveys today or tomorrow: they radically differ from those that existed a year ago. Although those were satisfactory, too,” he said.
BelTA reported earlier that in a bid to provide sociological support for the upcoming referendum, the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in association with the EcooM think tank conducted the large-scale opinion poll “Belarus. A vision of the future” from 15 November through 4 December 2021. Researchers polled 10,217 respondents focusing on economically active population. The sampling was multi-stage, stratified by region and type of settlement, and included sex and age quotas. The study covered all the regions of Belarus, Minsk, 52 districts (including nine districts of the capital city), almost 350 organizations and enterprises in various sectors and of different forms of ownership.
