MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – About 60% of Belarusians believe that the current Constitution meets the needs of the society, 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 block of questions in the survey concerned the constitutional reform. "The basic questions were ‘Do you think the current Constitution meets the needs of the society and the state?' 57.8% of respondents has a positive answer to this question, and 27.3% answered negatively," Sergei Musiyenko said.
The sociological survey was preceded by a telephone survey. Its results were a little different. "60.1% believe that the current Constitution corresponds to the public needs. This is my opinion too. But it turns out that it is shared by the majority of the country's residents," said Sergei Musiyenko.
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.
