People are frustrated, but they believe in good ruler, poll results

On Thursday the Election Monitoring and Democracy  Studying Center (EMDSC) held a training presentation on the results of the survey: "The views of the voters of Azerbaijan", which is sponsored by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the European Union.

The poll covered all regions of Azerbaijan, at 150 polling stations in 125 constituencies. The survey involved 1,186 respondents who answered questions about the socio-economic, socio-political situation of the relationship between state and citizens.

According to the head of the Center, Anar Mammadov, 2% of respondents appreciated the living standard of their families, 48% - call it average, 37% - heavy, 12% - unbearable.

 49% of respondents said that over the past three years, no changes took place in the  living standard, 36% reported small positive changes. Only 5% of respondents  noted  the improvement of living standards, and 24% are hoping for a better life in the next three years.

42% of respondents do not believe in improving the living  standard, 20% believe that the living  standard  will not even further reduced.

As for the socio-political processes, 44% of respondents believe that the elections have no effect on these processes.

 8-9% of the respondents believe that political pressure  is growing during the elections. This is the answer to the question “ what will be the voters’ activity in 2013, I got the following response: 70% will  take part in the elections, 16% will not take part, and the rest have not decided yet.

Concerning  the block of questions citizen-state, 40% of respondents believe  that  president and his administration will resolve problems. 

However, respondents do not expect to solve the issues by the courts, local government, law enforcement agencies,  and the ombudswoman; 46%  said there is no sense to appeal to their deputy. 

In the regions, families get political news from television ANS (45%) and Khazar (42-43%).

Only 15-16% of respondents track political news  on AzTV; people mainly watch Turkish  TV channels (25%).

Ten percent of people watch news on Internet TV, but their number is growing rapidly; 11-12%  get political news from social networks.

During the presentation, it was noted that respondents  were often afraid to speak out. Up to 35% of the respondents did not want to answer questions. In many regions, including in Nakhchivan, Ganja, Gusar , people conducted the poll were subjected to pressure. Many respondents  were subjected to pressure after the interview, and even demanded to return of the completed questionnaire. -03C04-