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INFORMATION SHORTAGE IS THE REASON BEHIND MISTRUST IN POLITICIANS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Many analysts noted that the external side of the election campaign under way is uninteresting and goes largely unnoticed. Despite this and although the rating of the Supreme Council and the National Assembly (and parliamentarism as a whole) is low, 63.4% of respondents showed interest in the candidates in their constituency. However, respondents clearly have little information about candidates and their electoral programs (Table 1). Considering this deficit of information, the choice is usually random. At the same time, in spite of the authorities’ efforts, 39.6% of respondents said that candidates do not have equal opportunities during the election race (16.7% of respondents have a contrary opinion). The most common forms of election propaganda are still traditional and include the distribution of leaflets, meetings with voters and doorbell ringing (Table 2).
Table 1. Distribution of answers to the question: “Do you know anything about the candidates for the autumn parliamentary elections in your constituency?”

Table 2. Distribution of answers to the question: “Do candidates in your constituency use the following forms of advocating their ideas?”

Our assessment of the level of propaganda, which in our case only covers small groups of electorate, is moderately skeptical. Nevertheless, 18.6% of respondents said that the authorities support one of the candidates in their constituency. Candidates still make temperate use of means to win their voters’ trust and “dirty technologies” (Tables 3 and 4). The possible reasons behind that may be the lack of finance and fear lest the competitors catch them at their tricks.

Table 3. Distribution of answers to the question: “Do candidates try to compromise their competitors’ reputation?”

Table 4. Distribution of answers to the question: “Did candidates do anything for voters during the election campaign?”

Fortunately, people understand the meaningfulness of independent observing over the voting process: only 10.2% of respondents said there is no use in observers at polling stations (Table 5).

Table 5. Distribution of answers to the question: “Is the presence of observers at polling stations necessary during the voting?”

Table 6. Distribution of answers to the question: “Which features should a candidate have to make you like him?”

Table 7. Distribution of answers to the question: “If you are planning to boycott the autumn parliamentary elections, why are you?”

Voters still estimate candidates by fairly traditional criteria (Table 6). A fact deserves special mention that party membership and morality (!) have little priority within this framework, but life experience and experience in administration is very important. The list of reasons why people do not want to participate in the voting is topped by deep mistrust in candidates and government institutions (Table 7) rather than ideological opposition to the regime (only 2.5% of respondents said that they supported the boycott). And the reason behind the mistrust in candidates is the absence of true comprehensive information about them.