Election billboards of the United Russia party read: "Vote No. 10." No. 10 is United Russia's number in ballot.
Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
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United and Omnipresent
Nowadays, the Russians see the United Russia even where there are no traces of it, signaled the poll of All-Russia’s Center of Public Opinion Study that clarified the nation’s perception of the election debates on TV that are ignored by the ruling party.
The United Russia officially declared it doesn’t take part in the election debates that local and federal TV channels broadcast starting from November 6. Nevertheless, quite a few Russians managed to see its members amid the policymakers challenging each other in the TV air.
Some 13 percent of respondents spotted debating envoys of the United Russia in the TV air in the first week of broadcast, but their number narrowed to 8 percent as of today. It is lower than LDPR has (20 percent) but corresponds to the result attained by the Agrarian Party and LDPR (6 percent to 8 percent).
What’s more, the United Russia is the absolute leader in persuasiveness manifested during the debates, which it actually ignores. Anyway, of those who saw its public debates on TV, 69 percent said they liked it. Even LDPR managed to win no more than 51 percent in this indicator.
All-Russia’s Center of Public Opinion Study held two polls focused on the election debates, November 10 and 11 and November 17 and 18, covering 1,600 residents of 153 settlements of 46 regions of Russia. The statistic error doesn’t exceed 3.4 percent.
Anyway, only 10 percent to 12 percent of the nation saw the TV debates of the parties, so their actual effect on elections is too difficult to predict. In addition to LDPR, CPRF (15 percent) and Fair Russia (15 percent) appear most popular with the nation.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 23, 2007
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