Poll: Almost 70% of respondents in Armenia see the need for  lustration of officials

ArmInfo. The Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC) conducted a survey among Internet users from March 11 to April 5 to find out the  public's attitude to the internal political situation in the country  and possible solutions, the spread of hate words and their causes,  the need for constitutional changes.

Thus, according to the results of the survey, 70.5% of respondents  believe that Armenia needs a new Constitution, 10.9% do not agree  with this, and 18.5% found it difficult to answer. At the same time,  opinions were divided regarding the reasons for such changes. In  particular, 31.2% believe that there is a need to change the  management system, 17.9% are of the opinion that the current  Constitution impedes the development of Armenia, 14.8% believe that  the Constitution was written for the goals of the former authorities,  11.8% - see the need to revise the structure of the judiciary, 11% -  named other reasons.

When asked what form of government Armenia needs, 34.9% of  respondents noted that they see Armenia as a semi-presidential state,  29.1% as a presidential state, 19.7% as a parliamentary one with a  strong premiership system, and 16.2% as a classic parliamentary  state. At the same time, 68.9% of the respondents believe that there  is a need for lustration of officials, 25.5% found it difficult to  answer, and 5.6% do not see such a need.

The poll also touched upon the judicial system. In particular, 83.6%  of the respondents are sure that there is a need for vetting of  judges in Armenia, 8.9% - hold the opposite opinion, and 7.5% - found  it difficult to answer.

The work of the government in terms of combating the coronavirus  pandemic was assessed as satisfactory by 28.5%, 27.5% - think that  the authorities are doing very well with the existing problems, 24.2%  - assessed it as unsatisfactory, 13.6% - good, 4.5% - found it  difficult to answer, 1.8% - appreciated the work of the authorities  excellently.  However, the lion's share of respondents (88.6%)  believes that there is definitely a problem in Armenia with the  spread of disinformation, 9.1% noted that there is a similar problem  to a certain extent, and a very scanty share (0.7% -0.8% ) argue that  there is no such problem in the country, and if there is, then to an  insignificant extent. At the same time, 50.8% believe that the fight  against disinformation is not being conducted, 37.1% - hold the  opposite opinion, however, noting that the fight is ineffective, 8.8%  - found it difficult to answer, and 3.3% - believe that an effective  fight is being waged.  When asked whether words of hatred are  widespread in Armenia, 59.1% answered that there are too many words  of hatred, 28.5% - said that not so much, 1.5% found it difficult to  answer, and 0.3% are sure that they are not at all common. According  to 33.1%, the reason for the spread of words of hatred is artificial  division into fronts, 27.8% named impunity as the main reason, 22% -  general demoralization, 12.4% - abuse of freedom of speech, 4.6% -  other reasons.

In addition, 47.7% of respondents see the need to hold early  parliamentary elections as soon as possible, 34.9% - noted that it is  advisable to hold elections after the stabilization of the country,  10.6% - do not have a clear position on this issue, 6.8 % - do not  see the need for this at all. At the same time, in the conduct of  early parliamentary elections, the majority (48.4%) of respondents  trust the current authorities, 34.1% - the transitional government,  17.5% - do not attach importance to who will hold them, the main  thing is to organize them as soon as possible.  According to the  results of the poll, 55.1% of the respondents believe that there is a  need for the resignation of the prime minister, 25.5% do not see such  a need, 19.4% found it difficult to answer. The reason for the  resignation, according to the respondents, may be that the prime  minister failed an effective domestic and foreign policy, 14.6% noted  that the head of government is a symbol of defeat in the war and is  responsible for this, 12.1% - consider the prime minister a bad  leader, 8,7% - noted that it is a loss of trust, 6.4% -  unsatisfactory assess the ability of the prime minister to negotiate  in the interests of Armenia, 17.4% - named a number of other reasons.

When asked to name the reasons why the incumbent prime minister  should remain in power, 43.9% of respondents noted the absence of an  alternative, 16% - expressed full confidence in the prime minister,  2.4% - believe that the policy led by the prime minister is the only  correct one, 37.6% - named a number of other facts.  At the same  time, 89.4% of the respondents believe that the Karabakh issue has  not been resolved, and only 2.3% hold the opposite opinion, 8.3%  found it difficult to answer.  However, respondents consider the  return of Armenian prisoners to be the main problem of the Armenian  society (32%), the second priority is the restoration of the RA Armed  Forces (18.9%), the next urgent issue is economic crisis (12.1%). At  the same time, 9.9% of respondents see the need of the prime  minister's resignation and formation of a transitional government, 6%  to ensure the security of the Syunik region, 4.8% - the resignation  of the prime minister and early parliamentary elections, 4.6% -  finding out the whereabouts of the missing, and the search for the  remains of bodies, 2.2% - restoring the health of wounded soldiers  and providing them with social assistance, 1.5% - returning lost  territories, 0.5%- preventing the spread of coronavirus and  eliminating the consequences.  To note, the sample size was 600, the  sampling error was +/- 5%, 60.6% of the respondents were women, 39.4%  were men. The age of the overwhelming majority of respondents (35.4%)  is 18-25 years old, 26.7% - from 26 to 35 years old, 16.9% - from 45  to 60 years old, 13.7% - from 36 to 45 years old, 7,3% - over 61  years old. At the same time, 49% of respondents from Yerevan took  part in the survey, 46.5% - from regions, 4.5% - others. It should be  noted that 72.5% of the respondents have higher education.