MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – Some 72.4% of Belarusians do not support protests in the country, the head of the analytical center EcooM Sergei Musiyenko told media while commenting on the results of the sociological study "Social Thinking" conducted in the run-up to the Belarusian People's Congress, BelTA has learned.
“The majority of respondents, 72.4%, do not support the protests taking place in the country, and 15.4% of those surveyed expressed support for protest actions. In addition, 75.9% responded that the protests have a negative impact on the quality of life. It is, in principle, objective and understandable, because in autumn people tried not to take their children to out-of-school activity centers or to visit the center of cities,” Sergei Musiyenko said.
The national public opinion poll was commissioned by the BelTA news agency. It was conducted from 12 January to 8 February by the analytical center EcooM with the involvement of the Ukrainian Policy Foundation and in cooperation with the sociological centers accredited in Belarus. Using paper questionnaires and tablets, pollsters interviewed 9,896 respondents in 108 localities of all regions of Belarus, sampling the Belarusian population older than 18 by gender, age, level of education, municipality size and region. Statistical sampling error does not exceed 2.5%.
The two-stage field survey was preceded a the pilot telephone survey to prepare the necessary tools and build up the tactics for collecting primary sociological information.
The first stage featured a territorial survey of the economically active population. Following the first stage a decision was taken to conduct the second stage with a wider coverage of different categories of citizens. Respondents were asked to fill in formal questionnaires. Pollsters also asked respondents of their needs and expectations, and collected proposals to improve the government policy in various fields. The emphasis was on open-ended questions.
