MOSCOW, February 11, 2008 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information on how many presidential contenders Russians think that we need for “normal” elections.
The list of presidential contenders now has four people on it. Every fifth respondent (18%) believes that this number is not sufficient and there is nobody to choose from. The majority of respondents (71%), however, assume that the number of presidential contenders available at the present moment is quite satisfactory.
74% of respondents who positively estimate political activity of the president currently in power, specify, that they are happy with the list of presidential contenders (17% are not happy with it). One third of respondents (32%) who provide a negative estimation of V. Putin’s political activity do not believe, that the number of presidential contenders available is sufficient, however, even in this group over half of respondents (54%) identify that they are quite happy with the current list of contenders.
It would be quite good, if there were 7-8 presidential contenders in the list, as 17% of respondents "dissatisfied" with the present number of contenders identify. 13% of respondents would not even be happy with the number mentioned above: they assume that 9-10 presidential contenders are a must. 11% consider 4-6 presidential contenders to be quite a sufficient number. There are also people (4%) who suppose that this is not a matter of quantity, but rather of the fact that there are no worthy presidential contenders among the Russian politicians at the present moment. Nearly half (47%) of respondents who are not satisfied with the number of the registered presidential contenders, could not provide an answer to the question, how many presidential contenders they think to be necessary to consider the elections normal.
The initiative all-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on February 2-3, 2008. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%
There are now four presidential contenders in the list. Would you say that the number of contenders still in the list is sufficient or do you think that there is no one to choose from? | ||||
| Total respondents | Approving/not approving of V. Putin´s political activity | ||
Approving | Not approving | Those who could not provide an estimation | ||
The current number of presidential contenders is quite sufficient | 71 | 74 | 54 | 57 |
The current number of presidential contenders is not at all sufficient, there is no one to choose from | 18 | 17 | 32 | 17 |
Hard to say | 11 | 9 | 14 | 26 |