It is known, that local elections in Belarus were scheduled for April 4, 1999. A few weeks before the voting day, officials from the Presidential Administration firmly asserted that 60-70% of voters would turn up at the polling stations. According to the results our poll (Table 1), this assurance did not match people’s opinions. It is understood that the views of the electorate could change on the eve of the elections. However, the intentions of those people, who counted the votes, could also influence the outcomes (According to the Central Election committee, 64% of eligible voters participated in the elections).
Table 1. Are you going to take part in the local elections? (%)
The lack of voters’ interest in the elections is also indirectly proven by other results of the poll (Table 2).
Table 2. Do you know anything about the candidates in your constituency?
Table 2 suggests that most voters, who participated in the elections, knew nothing of the candidates, which is a form of expressing their disinterest in the election process.
The poll was also aimed at the studying of peoples’ electoral preferences concerning parliamentary elections (Table 3). The respondents were to suggest the name of the party, in favor of which they were going to vote themselves. The parties, which did not get on the list, were mentioned by no more than 0.5% of respondents.
Table 3. If parliamentary elections in Belarus were scheduled for tomorrow, in favor of what party will you vote? (%)
Another question is how will the Belarusian electorate vote in the presidential elections of the Union of Belarus and Russia, if such a post is introduced? It is understood that this question is somewhat far-fetched, because the existing documents on the establishment of the Belarusian-Russian Union do not suggest the introduction of such a post. Therefore, the answers of respondents primarily characterize their views of politicians in Russia vs. Belarus (Table 4).
Table 4. If a post of the president of Belarus and Russia were established, for whom would you vote? (%)
The Russian and Belarusian politicians, who did not get on the list, were named by less than 1% of respondents. It is worthy of mention, that although the IISEPS “presidential ratings” of Russian politicians do not exactly match the results of similar polls, conducted in Russia, they reveal the same trends: the ratings of Ye. Primakov, Yu. Luzhkov and G. Yavlinsky went up, while the popularity of A. Lebed, V. Chernomyrdin and V. Zhirinovsky was on the decline.