MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – Belarus president approval rating stands at 66.5%, 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 president approval rating, according to this large poll, stands at 66.5%. It was 74.2% in the telephone survey which preceded the survey,” Sergei Musiyenko noted. “Army has the highest approval rating - 69.2%, churches - 66.8%, the government - 57%, law enforcement - 51.9%." According to Sergei Musiyenko, as a rule, these figures are lower, after big political campaigns.
The Belarusian opposition disapproval rating is 63.4%, approval is at 17.2%. "When the respondents were asked open-ended questions such as ‘Name the leader of the opposition' just a few mentioned the old members of the opposition. The 20-25 years of their struggle with the ‘regime' resulted in the fact that out of 10,000 respondents only 3-4 people still recognize their names. The opposition has new faces now. People know them but often confuse them," Sergei Musiyenko noted.
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 by 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.
"The results give an objective picture of the public opinion in Belarus," said Sergei Musiyenko.
