Is public confidence in gov’t of revolutionary PM Pashinyan on the wane in Armenia?
The results of a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute – Armenia suggest that the public’s confidence in the fledgling government of PM Pashinyan may be waning.
While respondents remain largely satisfied with the work of the Prime Minister’s office (76%) and the activities of the National Assembly (63%), 27 per cent of respondents said bad governance is the biggest failure of the current government – a five per cent increase compared to the last survey conducted in May 2019.
The survey also uncovered growing dissatisfaction in a number of other socio-economic aspects of the country’s life – more below.
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Public discontent on the rise?
Respondents to the survey largely praised the work of the new government, especially in the fight against corruption:
66 percent of respondents said the government is doing enough to fight corruption,
70 percent find the fight against corruption effective,
30 percent said the government’s greatest success is the reduction in corruption.
Respondents also had praise for attempts to reform the country’s justice system.
However, the data also shows that other concerns, formerly more limited in their scope and prevalence, are now becoming more widespread and are gradually turning into serious apprehensions about the new government and its ability to deal with a number of issues plaguing the country.
In particular:
The number of respondents who doubt that socio-economic problems will be solved grew from 18 to 29 per cent since the last survey in May, as did the number of those who believe it is critical that more jobs be created in the country – from 30 to 38 percent.
Perhaps of greatest significance is the spike in the number of people who consider bad governance to be the biggest problem of the current government, with the number of respondents answering in this manner growing from 22 to 27 percent.
Commentary
By political observer Hrant Mikaelyan
on his Facebook page:
“The request for revolution is far from exhausted. This, in my opinion, is fraught with destabilization. … Approval of the activity does not always mean trust.”
“In February-April 2018, 83% trusted the army, and after the change of power, the approval level of its activities was 74%. This recession took place against the backdrop of the activity of public groups critical of the army, as well as corruption disclosures…
Subsequently, however, the situation stabilized, in addition, the Prime Minister made a number of efforts to increase confidence in the army and now approval of its activities is at the level of 91%.”
