Baku, Azerbaijan, March 30
By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:
OpinionWay, a Paris-headquartered organization with extensive experience in social studies, and the Independent Counseling and Support Center for Civil Society have published the results of a joint survey conducted in March with the aim of assessing the socio-political and socio-economic situation in Azerbaijan on the eve of the April 11 presidential election, as well as to study the level of interest of the population in the election.
To the question “Which candidate would you choose if the April 11 presidential election is held today?”, 83.4 percent of respondents, who participated in the survey, chose President Ilham Aliyev.
At a press conference in Baku on March 30, Bruno Jeanbart, a representative of OpinionWay, said that 1,200 respondents aged over 18, living in the cities and districts of Azerbaijan, with the exception of the territory of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and the occupied regions, were interviewed.
The respondents who participated in the survey were identified randomly by using quotas on gender, age groups and types of settlements (city and village), he said.
Jeanbart added that 48.1 percent of the respondents were men and 51.9 percent were women.
Some 15.6 percent of the respondents were aged 18-24, 24.5 percent were aged 25-34, 33 percent were aged 35-49, 18.5 percent were aged 50-64, and 8.4 percent were aged 65 and older, he said.
He noted that when asked about the assessment of the economic situation in Azerbaijan, 45.9 percent of the respondents answered that the situation has improved compared to previous years, 23.4 percent said that the situation remained unchanged and 11.7 percent said that the situation was deteriorating.
When asked to what extent the respondents are satisfied with the situation related to a number of public, political and economic issues, 67.6 percent of the respondents answered that they are satisfied with the national security conditions in Azerbaijan, 66.1 percent of the respondents said they are satisfied with the availability of job opportunities, and 60.4 percent expressed satisfaction with the fight against crime in the country, Jeanbart said.
In addition, when asked about the priority of the most important issues existing in Azerbaijan, 78.2 percent of respondents said they are more concerned about occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and adjacent territories by the Armenian armed forces, 22.5 percent of respondents said they are concerned about the state of economy, while 21.9 percent expressed concern about deterioration of the environment condition, he added.
He said it was established during the survey that 68.9 percent of respondents are satisfied with functioning of the existing political system in Azerbaijan, 15.4 percent are dissatisfied, and 15.7 percent found it difficult to answer this question.
When asked “How satisfied are you with President Ilham Aliyev’s fulfillment of the duties of the head of state?”, 81.4 percent of the respondents answered they are very satisfied, 11.2 percent said they weren’t satisfied, while 7.4 percent of the respondents found it difficult to answer the question, Jeanbart said.
In general, the results of the survey make it possible to say there is a quite big interest among the population for the presidential election campaign, he noted.
Thus, 78.2 percent of the respondents noted they are interested in the campaign, 15.2 percent said they showed no interest in the election campaign at all, while 6.6 percent refused to answer this question, he added.
Some 80.55 percent of the respondents said they will take part in the election, 12.7 percent said they won’t participate and 6.8 percent said they hadn’t decided yet, Jeanbart said.
This is while 12 percent of the respondents said they intend to vote for other presidential candidates, 1.9 percent said they don’t want to vote for anyone and 2.7 percent said they don’t have any opinion on this at the moment, he added.