Survey in Kabardino-Balkaria: 58% of balkarians are ready to participate in protest actions
Opinion poll in Nalchik: 60% are sure duma elections will not have any impact on situation in KBR; 43% for “United Russia”, 56% - for Putin as next Russia’s president
On 3-10 August 2007 Caucasus Times, using its wide network of correspondents in the North Caucasus, conducted public opinion poll in Kabardino-Balkarian capital of Nalchik. Main goal of the poll was to explore the attitudes of the population towards the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections and towards large-scale 450th. anniversary celebration of Kabarda’s joining Russia scheduled for September 2007. Another goal of the research was to explore opinions of the local population concerning the activities of A. Kanokov, who is going to celebrate two–year anniversary of his presidency. In total, 400 residents of Nalchik of different sex, occupation and nationality including Kabardinians, Russians, Balkarians and other nationalities living in Kabardino-Balkaria have been polled.
Responding to a question on “whether the upcoming State Duma elections are going to have any impact on situation in Kabardino-Balkaria and if yes, what kind of impact?”, most respondents (60%) indicated that parliamentary elections will not have any impact on situation in their republic. This testifies to a widespread scepticism and lack of confidence among the local population in a major legislative body in Russia and its ability to deal with concrete problems facing Russia’s regions. In the meantime, 16% expect that Duma elections will result in a “positive” impact and 10% - “rather positive” impact. Insigificant number of those polled expect “negative” impact (2%) or “rather negative” impact (4%) on the situation in their republic. 8% reported difficulties in answering this question.
Respondents’ answers to a question on “which of political parties would you vote for in the upcoming Duma elections?” revealed high level of uneveness of political preferences among those polled as well as their quite low general awareness about the existing in today’s Russia political parties. Almost half of the respondents (43%) pointed out that they are going to vote for major pro-Kremlin “United Russia” party, which proved to be much more popular than any other political party in Russia. Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) with 12%, “Just Russia” party with 11% and Liberal-Democratic Party (LDPR) headed by V. Zhirinovsky with 8% turned out to be the second echelon of the most popular political parties in Russia.
Poll results indicate that all other, mostly right-wing Russian political parties don’t have any real serious electoral support in Kabardino-Balkaria. Thus, only 1% reported their readiness to give vote for the Union of Right Forces (SPS) while there were no supporters of opposition parties “YABLOKO” or “The other Russia” identified among those who participated in the poll. Quite significant number of respondents – 16% - stated that they are not going to take part in the elections. 9% found it hard to answer this question. It should be noted that general awareness of the political parties in Russia among those polled in Nalchik was low. Mostly young people tended to support pro-Kremlin “United Russia” while older people generally were more sceptical and critical about main pro-Kremlin party and tended to support left-wing opposition parties.