In a time of culmination of the political crisis which may lead to the first one-party parliamentary elections since the declaration of independence in 1991, next month, the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis”, Skopje (IDSCS) has conducted a public opinion survey on the current events. The survey has been conducted by a telephone on a representative sample of 1016 respondents in the period between 6 and 11 May 2016. The most important findings are the following:
The majority of the respondents (63%) think that there should not be elections where not all of the parties are participating. Thirty-one per cent (31%) find that acceptable.
A total of 55% think the government that should overcome the political crisis should be composed of non-partisan experts or composed of all of the parliamentary political parties. A government established from the 5 June election outcome is a political crisis resolution for 36% of the respondents.
The civil society organizations and movements should be involved in the political negotiations for overcoming the crisis. This opinion is shared by 61% of the respondents. Twenty-seven per cent (27%) of the respondents do not think that the civil society organizations and movements should be involved in the negotiations.
A vast majority of 76% respondents does not justify the pardoning decisions of 56 people for acts related to the wiretapping scandal. Only 16% consider the pardons justified.
A support for the protests (of Protestiram/Colorful Revolution and GDOM) give 46% of the respondents. Every third citizen (30%) supports the Protestiram/Colorful Revolution protests and every eighth citizen (12%) supports the GDOM protests.
The citizens are at odds in the assessment of the role of the USA and the EU in the resolution of the political crisis: 45% asses their role negatively, and 42% positively. Nevertheless, the majority of the citizens (53%) think that the USA and the EU have a decisive role in the resolution of the political crisis and that they should be involved more actively (56%).
When it comes to the work of the judicial institutions, on a scale from 1 to 5 the respondents give the highest average score to the Special Public Prosecution Office – 3.22. The Constitutional Court has a score of 2.33, the Public Prosecution Office – 2.32 and the Courts have a score of 2.22.
The negative attitudes prevail while reviewing the question about the attitude towards the political leaders: 55% towards Ali Ahmeti, 52% towards Nikola Gruevski and 48% towards Zoran Zaev.
Nikola Gruevski and Zoran Zaev have nearly equal distribution of positive opinion among the respondents: 33% have spoken positively of Nikola Gruevski and 30% of Zoran Zaev.
The full report from the conducted survey is available on the following link .