Makarov: level of trust towards parties growing, but remains low
The level of public trust in Belarusian political parties is gradually growing, although it continues to remain low – as noted by Director of the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (BISR) Oleg Makarov at a meeting of party leaders with the President
He noted that according to the data of the BISR and the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as a generalisation of the results of the dialogue platforms that took place before the referendum on amending the Constitution, three main positions of the population regarding parties were identified, “This is strengthening the role of constructive political parties, reducing their number and greater representation in the Parliament.”
Oleg Makarov also shared the following data, “Today we see a low level of trust in political parties: 32 percent of those surveyed speak of trust – 14 percent up compared to last year.”
However, this level is still low, and the BISR Director compared it with a similar indicator regarding the Parliament, “The level of confidence in the National Assembly stands at 67 percent, i.e., a low level of trust in political parties. Moreover, only 1.2 percent of the respondents participate in the political parties’ activities.”
Among the reasons for such a low indicator, Oleg Makarov named the apolitical nature of the population, the caution of the population, poor recognition of parties, and the lack of clarity of their specialisation, “The unclear difference between the parties and the population’s lack of understanding of their real functions.”
In addition, the BISR Director drew attention to the media component, “Today, according to our data, only 0.5 percent of the media flow, in principle, concerns parties. Studies of the media sphere show that the correlation between party building and the electoral process is weak. It is actually not visible.”
