The government has stopped ordering polls: following the traces of the article published by Hraparak daily

On September 26, 2019, Hraparak daily wrote that according to official secret surveys, Pashinyan’s rating has fallen. 

 “It is known that the government regularly conducts secret surveys for internal use to find out the ratings of various political forces and figures …Yesterday there was another rumour that allegedly Nikol Pashinyan’s rating had fallen only by 25%. However, according to our information, this number is far from reality. According to official polls conducted about a month ago, Pashinyan’s rating was 45 percent.“,-  wrote the newspaper and added  that the poll was conducted before the recent resignations of the law enforcement agencies and a visit to the United States.

This article has been republished by dozens of news sites: Tert.am, 168.am, News.am, Yerkir.am and others. The Fact Investigation Platform tried to find out what polls the government has ordered in recent months, and whether the information provided by the daily is true.

 What surveys is it all about?

 The former government has regularly ordered social surveys to private companies to measure the effectiveness of government work and public attitudes towards the activities of the government.

Such surveys were conducted during the premiership of Tigran Sargsyan, Hovik Abrahamyan, and Karen Karapetyan. These surveys were usually carried out by Breavis Research Company (formerly IPSC).

The government ordered the company to conduct social surveys on government activities, quality of life, and regional problems in the period from 2010 to 2017. From 2010-2016 the state budget paid about 530 million drams or $ 1.1 million for conducting these surveys.

What is the situation with the new government?

 The Hraparak daily claims that the polls carried out by the authorities show the 45% rating of Nikol Pashinyan. To find out if the information published by the daily is correct and whether the government is currently conducting social surveys, Fip.am sent an inquiry to the government staff.

They informed us that in 2019, the government did not order any social surveys.

Acting head of Information and Public Relations Department of the Government Armen Khachatryan told Fip.am that in the past, the government staff allocated funds for social surveys in the budget, however this line has been removed from the 2019 budget.

 “The Prime Minister’s staff has refused to order social surveys,” Khachatryan said.

We inquired whether the agencies affiliated with the Government or the Prime Minister, such as the Public Relations and Information Center SNCO, had carried out such work.

Armen Khachatryan informed us that the SNCO also did not make or order such surveys.

Other surveys

The latest poll on Armenia’s political life and government rating was released in July by the International Republican Institute (IRI). According to the poll, Nikol Pashinyan’s rating was 72%.

After this poll, no other institution has published a sociological survey on the rating of the authorities in Armenia.