76.5% Belarusians know nothing about candidates for local council members

The poll shows that a campaign covering the local council elections remains invisible for a million of voters.

76.5% of respondents don’t know about the candidate in their constituencies, and 36% don’t know the date of the elections, the website udf.by report.

The data were received from an opinion poll, carried out in March by the Independent Institute of Social, Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS). 1521 people were questioned. Statistical uncertainty in the given poll does not exceed 3%.

As the IISEPS notes, one of the reasons of the situation is that the local council have a rather low rating in political conscience of Belarusians: according to 82.4% of the respondents say the local council practically don’t influence their lives (46.2% say they don’t influence at all, and 3% find it difficult to answer), almost two thirds of the voters don’t know who represents their constituency in the local council. But everyone knows that the executive authorities, which have been appointed from above, not elected by people, have real power.

More than 70% think electoral commissions should consist of representatives of all political forces, including the opposition. Almost 74% say observers at ballot stations should represented all political forces, including the opposition.