Moscow Times
September 16, 2005
Russians Are Most Skeptical Voters: Poll
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
Some 80 percent of Russians do not believe that the country is governed by the will of the people, and 75 percent say that the country's elections are not free and fair, according to an annual global survey conducted by Gallup International for the BBC.
The survey, carried out May through July, asked 54,000 participants in 68 countries a range of questions in an attempt to determine global attitudes to power.
On some key issues, such as trust in the authorities and the fairness of elections, people in the former Soviet Union, represented in the poll by Russia and Ukraine, had the least hope that they could influence the government and politics.
Some Eastern European countries were among the most skeptical about government being influenced by the people's will. The only countries to match Russians' and Ukrainians' skepticism about elections were in West Africa and South Asia.
Globally, about 65 percent of people had little faith in governments representing the will of the people, the survey found. When asked, "Are your elections free and fair?" respondents were almost equally divided, with 47 percent saying yes and 48 percent saying no.
But among regions, large disparities appeared. In Russia and Ukraine combined, 69 percent said their elections were not free and fair, while in Europe 62 percent did believe their elections were carried out properly.
"With Russia, the results are not particularly unexpected," said Viktor Pratusevich, research director at Romir Monitoring, which questioned about 1,600 Russians for the global poll. Romir Monitoring is a member of Swiss-based Gallup International, an international polling association.
Pratusevich said that Russians' hopes for democracy peaked during the time of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika."Then there was a belief that once the role of the Communist Party was weakened, the naturally occurring changes -- including the free market and liberalization in politics -- would lead to democracy," he said.
The reality of the following years, however, proved to differ from those expectations, he said.
Only in South Africa, Scandinavia and Israel did respondents show significantly greater faith in their leaders. South Africa topped the list with 59 percent, followed by Scandinavia with 51 percent and Israel with 49 percent. Scandinavians and South Africans also took the lead in believing that elections in their countries were open and transparent. Some 82 percent of Scandinavians and 76 percent of South Africans agreed with this statement.
A more detailed breakdown of the results is to be released next week. The survey had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.