Mejlis Leadership Got Acquainted with Public Opinion Survey in Crimea For 2011

26 October 2011

On October 26, 2011 the presentation of the public opinion survey in Crimea for 2011 was held in the office of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, ordered by the International Republican Institute (“IRI”, USA).

The presentation of the survey was held by the Director of the Center of Public Opinion Survey “Baltic Surveys” (The Gallup Organization) Rasa Alisauskiene with the personal participation of the Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Jemilev and the Resident Country Director of International Republican Institute Chris Holzen.

The meeting was also attended by the representatives of the program “International Republican Institute” in ARC Konstantin Plosky and Anna Bondarenko. Mejlis was represented by the Head of Foreign relations department of Mejlis Ali Khamzin, Head of the Secretariat of Mejlis Zair Smedlyaev, Head of the Land commission of Mejlis Zevdzhet Kurtumerov, as well as the acting Chairman of the Revision commission of Qurultay of the 5th convocation Kurtseyit Abdullaev.

According to Chris Holzen, the surveys of the public opinion have been held in Ukraine since 1994 under the support of the International Republican Institute.

“The goal of our surveys is to study the public opinion and to spread its results among all the parties concerned in the political process in Ukraine,”- Mr. Holzen noted. According to Mr. Holzen, IRI paid attention to the uniqueness of Crimean region and its distinction from other regions of Ukraine.

In his turn, the Director of the Center of Public Opinion Survey “Baltic Surveys” (The Gallup Organization) Rasa Alisauskiene specified that the first survey, ordered by IRI was implemented in November 2009, later on the decision was adopted to prepare the survey in 2011. “From September 20 till October 2 this year 1200 Crimean residents were polled, including the residents of Sevastopol aged over 18, using a personal interview at home method,” – Mrs. Alisauskiene said. As the IRI representatives specified the permissible error of the survey doesn’t exceed 2,8 %. The survey was implemented in Crimea by the company of the Sociological Group “Rating”.

“The political activity of Crimea population, attitude to Mass Media, entrance of Ukraine to the EU, cooperation with Russia and USA, level of tension in the society – the list of the main questions, asked in the presented survey of the public opinion in Crimea and Sevastopol,” Rasa Alisauskiene said, commenting on the survey’s concept.

“The majority of the active representatives of the political process in Ukraine and Crimea have been already acquainted with the results of the mentioned survey,”- IRI’s representatives said, adding that in the nearest future the results of the survey of the public opinion in Crimea for 2011 will be published on the International Republican Institute’s official website (http://www.iri.org/).