DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AGE GROUPS

Among age groups, the most interested in communicating with both A. Lukashenko and democratic candidate A. Milinkevich are the citizens aged 60 and over as well as those between 30 and 50 years old. Naturally, frequency of questions to the president and his major rival is very different. Let’s turn to the most popular questions to both candidates asked in different age groups.

Those who have just entered the voting age (18-19 years old) ask the president about quality and affordability of education, about how long he plans to govern and when the living standard will increase. Yet, frequency of these questions doesn’t exceed the margin of error.

Respondents aged 20-24, as compared to the younger group, 2.5-fold more often ask about how long A. Lukashenko will govern yet. The group of 30-39-aged shows the greatest interest to this issue with 40-49-aged going the second. More elderly respondents show decline of interest to this issue but it doesn’t tend to zero.

Fairly different is respondents’ concern in the prospects of increasing living standard. Voters under 30 are in general concerned about this issue but their number is twofold less than among older respondents. Also, they ask questions about A. Lukashenko’s plans for the future (this question is apparently tied with “For how long are going to rule?”) and about future of the youth.

Those who have reached 30 years old are more than younger respondents concerned about “Why prices rise along with raise in wages?” This question is the most frequent among those aged 60 and over who most likely live from retirement pensions rather than wages. By the way, to the talk about pensions, all age groups are ready to address A. Lukashenko with request to raise it and the greatest concern in this show those for whom pension is vital. In the group aged 50-59 only 7% of respondents would like to address the president with such a request while they are already 14.8% among respondents aged 60 and over. What’s more, 7.6% of respondents aged 60 and over are ready to thank A. Lukashenko for excellent governance which is nearly twofold less than those who would ask for pension raise.

All age groups want to ask “When will people live well?” which can be interpreted both as discontent with the current situation and as a request to do something to improve it. It is the most frequent among those aged 60 and over (6.4%) as well as among those almost aged 30 (6%).

Commenting on Table 1, we already noted that questions to the sole candidate are aimed to understand him as a political figure. What are peculiarities in age groups in this regards? Maximum interest to the election campaign is revealed among the respondents aged 30-39: 8.5% of the polled from this group would like to ask a question on this and they make 25.2% of all respondents who asked a question on peculiarities of A. Milinkevich’s election campaign. The second place is given to 40-49-aged (6.3%) and to 20-24-aged (12.9%).

Finally, these are first of all respondents aged 30-50 who would like to address the opposition leader with request to tell about his program. At the same time, this question is relatively frequently asked in all age groups. The question on the program is closely tied with “What is the way out of the deadlock for Belarus?” In a weaker form, its frequency is repeated in the question about program.

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