Nation-wide home interviews conducted September 3-4 2005 in 100 residencies in 44 regions. A sample size of 1500 respondents. Additional polls of the Moscow population, with a sample of 600
Less than half of Russians are aware of the fact that on November 27, parliamentary elections will be held in Chechnya: 18% of respondents "know" about it, and 27% "have heard something", while 51% are not informed about the issue. It is therefore no surprise that more than half of respondents were unable to say whether this is a good time to hold elections. Among those who were able to answer, 25% think now is good time for parliamentary elections in Chechnya, 8% think the elections should have been held earlier, while 16% think they should be delayed.
Not many people expect changes in the republic after the parliamentary elections, but most of them are optimistic: 18% think the situation in Chechnya will improve, while only 3% think it will worsen (43% think there will be no changes, and the rest found it difficult to answer).
At the same time, people are not inclined to underestimate the significance of the upcoming polls: 43% consider them to be an important event for all Russia, while 24% say they are important only for Chechnya, and 10% think the elections are unimportant. By the way, those who consider the elections to be important for all of Russia were noticeably more likely to think now is a good time to hold them.
The parliamentary elections in Chechnya are...
not important
an important event for all Russia
important only for the Chechen republic
Question: "In your opinion, is this a good time to conduct parliamentary elections in Chechnya, or not? If not, should they have been conducted earlier, or put off to a later time?"
now is a good time
16
38
23
should have been held earlier
4
11
10
should be delayed
29
15
18
hard to answer
51
36
49
According to the respondents, both supporters of the current government and representatives of the Chechen militants will win seats in parliament: according to 41%, President Alkhanov's supporters will win many parliamentary seats, while 10% hold the opposite opinion. Only 10% think rebel supporters will win many parliamentary seats, while 25% think they will win only a small number, and 21% think they won't gain any seats in the parliament.
As for whether the outcome of the elections will reflect the Chechen people's will, opinions split equally: 33% think the results will be objective, while 32% think they will not. Those who share the first opinion were noticeably more likely to expect success for supporters of the incumbent authorities: among the first group, 56% predict Alkhanov's supporters will gain a large number of seats in parliament, while among the second group, only 38% think this will happen. Moreover, the first group was twice as likely to say that representatives of the militants won't gain any seats than respondents from the second group (31% against 17%).
In other words, Russians are inclined to think that Chechen voters sympathize mostly with the republic's government. Therefore, the more objective the outcome of the elections, the larger the number of seats the government's supporters will gain.
