Domestic

Domestic

Public Opinion Survey: 95 percent of population in Azerbaijan supports President Ilham Aliyev

22 November 2011 10:05 (UTC +04:00)

Between 10th and 30th September, one thousand Azerbaijani adults were asked questions about all aspects of life in Azerbaijan in one of the most comprehensive surveys of public opinion ever undertaken inside the country, Director of the Caspian Information Centre Gerald Frost said. The survey was carried out by Populus Limited, one of Britainâ€™s top opinion research companies. Populusâ€™ survey has produced some remarkable results, which were published in full today at a press conference in Baku.

Chief among these was the high level of trust in President Aliyev (95 per cent), who scored an even higher approval rating (96 per cent). Specific findings that may be of interest include: 79 per cent of adults think that things in Azerbaijan are generally going in the right direction, and 70 per cent think that the economy is going in the right direction; Jobs top the list of peopleâ€™s concerns, closely followed by political stability (23 per cent) and economic growth 15 per cent; Just over half (54 per cent) think that everyday life is improving; By international standards the government enjoys a high level of popular support - 71 per cent say that it is doing a good job and 75 per cent say they trust it; People generally think that Azerbaijan is secure, improving, stable, successful and strong; 82 per cent think that Azerbaijanâ€™s international standing has improved.

Answering the question â€œDid you meet such highest trust in government of any other country? If you did, what country is it?â€ Frost said it was difficult for him to make comparison because he didnâ€™t remember the results of surveys in other countries and also they didnâ€™t carry out such survey in the neighbor countries. But the results of this survey are interesting for us. It would be difficult to get such results in the European countries because the West Europeans scantily answer these questions. Indeed the results are an index of the trust in Head of State. The country is rapidly developing. It means that the level of welfare of Azerbaijanis was improvedâ€.

Director of the Center said the government of Azerbaijan was not informed about the survey and relevant organizations were informed later. â€œThe survey was funded by the corporative organizationsâ€.

He said developing Azerbaijan became more interesting.

Frost said he saw no reason to carry out such survey in Armenia, which was at war with Azerbaijan. â€œIt is out of sphere of our interest now. But it is impossible not to touch upon the Nagorno Karabakh issue. We consider carrying out survey on this issue in the futureâ€.