Armenian representation of the Gallup International Association has conducted an opinion polling to gauge voting intentions in the run-up to the April 2 Parliamentary elections.

Aram Navasardyan, Director of Gallup International Association Office in Armenia told a press conference today, saying the opinion poll was conducted among 1,146 respondents from February 23 to March 2 in the territory of Armenia.

According to the results, 26,4 % of the respondents said they would vote for “Tsarukyan” bloc when asked which political party of bloc they would you vote for if the parliamentary elections were held on forthcoming Sunday.

According to the survey, 22,8 percent of Armenians stated their intention to vote for the ruling Republican party (RPA), 4,3 percent – for “Exit” bloc, 3,9 percent – for ARF-Dashnaktsutyun, 3,4 percent – Free Democrats, 2,7 percent – “Armenian Renaissance”, 2,6 – ANC-HZhK, while 1 percent of the respondents stated desire to give their vote to the Communist Party.

14,1 percent declined to respond, while 27 percent were not precise what political force they preferred.

Speaking of the reason beyond the high approval rating of “Tsarukyan” bloc, Navasardyan said. “In our previous opinion poll conducted in November, there was a slight difference between the two dominant forces in Armenian provinces where respondents were mainly inclined to vote for “Tsarukyan” bloc, while the Republican party had a higher rating in capital Yerevan. The data are not that unexpected since the difference is only three percent which may change depending on the course of the election campaign,” Navasardyan said, declining to predict which direction the trend might go.

To the speaker’s estimates, in the opinion polls for the upcoming election, 4 political forces, - namely “Tsarukyan” bloc, RPA, “Exit” and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun are deemed to overcome the election threshold and enter parliament, while free Liberals have a good chance as well.

Gallup data also reveal that 59,9 percent of the respondents said they would definitely participate in the elections, 25,7 – likely participate, 4,3 – likely not participate, and 7,1 percent said they would not participate in the vote.

Based on survey data around 50-60 percent turnout is expected in the forthcoming elections.