Survey in Kabardino-Balkaria: 58% of balkarians are ready to participate in protest actions

Opinion poll in Cherkessk: 46% are sure duma elections will not have any impact on situation in Karachaevo-Cherkessia

PRAGUE, 6 December - Using its wide network of correspondents in the North Caucasus, aucasus Times held public opinion poll on 25-27 November 2007 in the capital of Karachaevo-Cherkessia Cherkessk devoted to State Duma elections and the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. Apart from that, opinions of the local population towards social and economic as well as security situation in the republic were also explored. Separate part of the questionnaire dealt with media preferences of the population. In total, 100 residents of Cherkessk of different ages, sexes and nationalities have been polled.

Responding to a question about the possible impact of the Duma elections on the situation in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, most of those polled (46%) said that parliamentary elections would not have any impact on the situation in their republic. At the same time, 21% of those polled are sure that Duma elections are going to have positive and 11% - rather positive influence on their republic. 22% of respondents, on the contrary, indicated that Duma elections would have rather negative impact. In the course of the poll, some respondents demonstrated quite skeptical attitudes towards Duma elections pointing out that regardless the actual voting the authorities would make everything as they like.

Responses to a question on “which party would you like to vote for?” revealed the fact that pro-Kremlin “Unified Russia” is the most popular political party in Cherkessk with 38% of those who said they are going to vote for “Unified Russia”. Another pro-Kremlin party, “Just Russia” proved to be also quite popular with 21% of supporters. Among other popular parties are KPRF (13%) and Zhirinovsky’s LDPR (8%). 4% of respondents indicated they are going to vote for YABLOKO. It should be noted that younger and middle-aged respondents working as state employees tend to mostly support “Unified Russia”. Representatives of intelligentsia and some entrepreneurs tend to support “Just Russia”. Pensioners and working people were mostly for KPRF. It turned out that SPS (Union of Right Forces) did not have any support among the population of Cherkessk. 2% of respondents are still not sure about their political preferences. 14% pointed out they are not going to take part in the elections, which testifies to quite high level of political passivity in Karachaevo-Cherkessia.

Respondents in Cherkessk also demonstrated high level of skepticism about the ability of presidential elections to influence situation in their republic. Thus, 43% of those polled said that presidential elections are not going to have any impact on their republic. At the same time, 24% believe presidential elections will have rather positive impact on Karachaevo-Cherkessia. 8% feel that presidential elections will have rather negative and 11% - negative impact. Quite large proportion of those polled (14%) found it hard to answer that question saying that there is quite a long time before presidential elections and the names of all presidential candidates are still not known.