Opposition has Most Success of Gathering Votes in Armenia’s Capital: Sociologist

In sociologist Aharon Adibekyan’s opinion, the British Populus sociological survey of Armenia’s political arena created liveliness among the media. 

According to Populus survey results, the most popular politician in Armenia is president Serzh Sargsyan, while the most popular party is Prosperous Armenia.

Adibekyan noted that the results of a survey by Sociometr sociological center, which he heads, likewise testify to Sargsyan’s popularity. 

According to the Sociometr survey, following Sargsyan in terms of popularity are RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and National Assembly Chair (parliamentary speaker) Hovik Abrahamyan. 

“If we’re asking who’s the most influential politician, second place goes to [head of Prosperous Armenia Gagik] Tsarukyan, fourth and fifth places go to [Heritage Party leader] Raffi Hovannisian and [head of the opposition bloc Armenian National Congress] Levon Ter-Petrossian [respectively],” he said. 

The sociologist also listed the factors which make a party successful in the eyes of the public: the number of members, the number of local organizational bodies, these bodies’ performance in between elections, financial capacities and the number of community leaders that belong to that political party. 

“Out of 915 communities, leaders of 675 of them are members of the [ruling] Republican Party [of Armenia], so they have control on the spot,” he said. 

In Adibekyan’s opinion, local leaders “are stronger than marzpets [regional governors] because they resolve everyday issues in the community.”

“If you control the activities of community leaders, you control mainly the community’s voice. That is two-thirds of the overall voters,” he added.

Yerevan, according to the sociologist, is something else: “an electoral district of independent units” and here the opposition has more chances of gathering votes.