SERGE SARGSYAN HAS A 67 PERCENT RATING IN THE MARZES

There’s almost no likelihood for a second stage

Yesterday AHARON ADIBEKYAN, Head of “Sociometer” independent center, introduced the results of their most recent social polls

The polls were conducted on January 25-27 and covered all the marzes of Armenia, except the town of Yerevan.
The results of the polls conducted among 2240 voters of the marzes revealed the following picture.
Seventy-five percent of the respondents are expected to participate in the presidential elections to be held on February 19. Five percent responded that they would not participate, and the remaining 20 percent were not interested in the elections.
The polls helped find out the degree of the voters’ awareness about the candidates. Thus, 56.8 percent of the respondents know Arthur Baghdasaryan, 55 percent know Artashes Geghamyan, 40.7 percent know Vahan Hovhannisyan, 44.2 percent know Vazgen Manoukyan, 80.6 percent know Levon Ter-Petrosyan, and 97.5 percent know Serge Sargsyan. As to Tigran Karapetyan, Aram Haroutyunyan and Arman Melikyan, each of these three candidates is known by 51 percent of the respondents.
Are the voters familiar with the candidates pre-election programs?
In response to this question, 6.9 percent of the voters mentioned that they were familiar with A. Baghdasrayan’s program; 5.2 percent mentioned that they were familiar with A. Geghamyan’s program. V. Hovhannisyan’s program is familiar to 3.2 percent, V. Manoukyan’s program – to 2.4 per cent, L. Ter-Petrosyan’s program –to 7.7 per cent and S. Sargsyan’s program to 19.7 percent of the voters. The programs of the remaining three candidates are known to 2.4 percent of the people.
Which candidates are preferable among the pro-Opposition electorate of the marzes?
As a result of the poll, Arthur Baghdasaryan turned out to be the leading candidate in the list of the pro-Opposition contenders, as 6.8 percent of the respondents gave preference to him. L. Ter-Petrosyan was considered preferable by 5.4 percent, A. Geghamyan – by 2.9 percent, V. Manoukyan – by 2.3 percent and V. Hovhannisyan – 1.5 percent of the voters.
The fifth and the last question included in the survey list: which candidate are the voters of the marzes going to vote for? The votes were distributed in the following way: 67 percent of the respondents mentioned that they would vote in favor of Serge Sargsyan. As regards the rest of the candidates, a vast difference was observed between the ratings of Serge Sargsyan and Arthur Baghdasaryan, the second candidate.
Only 9 percent of the respondents mentioned that they were going to vote in favor of Arthur Baghdasaryan. 6 percent will vote for L. Ter-Petrosyan, 3 per cent - for Vahan Hovhannisyan, 2 percent - for Artashes Geghamyan and 1.5 percent – for Vazgen Manoukyan. And 10. 5 per cent of the respondents have not yet made up their minds who to vote for.
Yesterday Head of “Sociometer” center Aharon Adibekyan mentioned that after summing up the results of the polls conducted during the month of January, it became noticeable that there was a 10 percent increase in Serge Sargsyan’s rating which had been 57 percent as a result of the polls conducted in December
The next observation of the sociologist was the following, “As shown by the results of the poll, Arthur Baghdasaryan may become the united candidate of the Opposition since, having quite a high rating, the candidate representing ‘Rule of Law’ party is found preferable for the pro-Opposition electorate. Therefore, it is he rather than Levon Ter-Petrosyan that may become the united candidate.” Answering the questions of the journalists, A. Adibekyan said, “I find that there is a very little likelihood for holding a second stage of elections.”
He also mentioned that the poll was conducted at the request of the electoral headquarters of two candidates. One of them was the headquarters of the RPA Chairman; as to the headquarters of the pro-Opposition candidate, the sociologist didn’t disclose any name.
Doesn’t he have fears that many of the candidates will not believe in the poll results? In response to this question, A. Adibekyan mentioned, “It is not a matter of belief. These are data obtained on the basis of a scientific survey. The people may either accept or refuse to accept them and not believe or disbelieve the datum. This is not a religion.”
Anyway, why don’t the pro-Opposition candidates request polls or why do they apply to sociologists very rarely? Mr. Adibekyan naturally had the answer to this question of ours too, and it sounded very interesting, “In psychology, there is a question concerning self-esteem, and that question is addressed to women. Do you often look at yourself in the mirror when you are naked? When I asked this question, a woman answered, ‘No’. I asked, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘Is there anything to look at?’ This is the problem. The pro-Opposition candidates have nothing to measure. Or they request polls once, and that’s all.
Let me add that ‘Sociometer’ is to conduct 2 more polls by February 19.”
KIMA YEGHYAZARYAN

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