Baku, April 26, AZERTAC

“If the presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan next Sunday, the vast majority of respondents in Baku would have gone to polls (86.2 per cent), according to "Rey" Monitoring Center.

Some 68.1 per cent of the respondents said they would have cast their ballots, while 18.1 per cent said they would have probably voted.

The poll was conducted by the center on April 18-19, involving 800 respondents.

According to the results of the poll, the vast majority of the respondents – 92.8 per cent – would have voted for Ilham Aliyev. Some 97 percent of the respondents said they fully trusted Ilham Aliyev, with around 89 per cent saying Ilham Aliyev meets their interests.

The poll also revealed that 78.8 per cent of the respondents saw no alternatives to Ilham Aliyev as president of Azerbaijan.

The survey also revealed that the high rating of and confidence in the head of state stemmed from the successful foreign policy, economic development measures, the army`s successes, and other factors. The majority of the respondents supported President Ilham Aliyev`s foreign policy: 87.3 per cent rated this policy as “very good” or “mainly good”. Only five per cent voiced their disapproval of the country`s foreign policy, with 3.6 per cent of them rating it as “bad”, and 2.1 per cent as “very bad”.

Offered several options, the respondents also chose the recent most successful foreign policy event. Some 65.5 per cent said it was President Ilham Aliyev`s attending the fourth Nuclear Security Summit on the invitation of Barack Obama. Around 63.8 per cent said the President`s Ankara visit was the most successful event in Azerbaijan`s foreign policy, with the majority of the respondents describing this as support for Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who twice postponed his visit to Baku because of terrorist attacks. Some 38 per cent believe that the most successful foreign policy event was the head of state`s visit to Iran, while 19 per cent said it was the Baku meeting of the Azerbaijani, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers.

According to the poll, support for Ilham Aliyev as Supreme Commander-in-Chief had climbed amid the growing tension in the Nagorno-Karabakh, with 97 per cent of the respondents voicing their confidence in him as Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Baku residents also approved of the economic measures taken by the President and the government. Some 28 per cent of the respondents rated the economic situation in Azerbaijan as “good”, 44 per cent as “middling”, and only 18 per cent as “bad”. Ten per cent remained undecided. The majority of Baku residents believe that President Ilham Aliyev`s executive orders and instructions have dramatically changed the situation and helped the country avoid negative impact of the falling global oil prices and global economic crisis.

Some 62 per cent of the respondents believe that President Ilham Aliyev`s executive order suspending inspections of entrepreneurs and easing licensing for them will boost the development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship in the country. Some 17.7 per cent believe these measures are unlikely to be helpful, while 8.2 per cent are completely sure these measures will not work.

Some 68.2 per cent of Baku residents believe that these measures will help put an end to unnecessary inspections of small and medium-sized businesses. Some 16 per cent of the respondents do not share this optimism as they believe these measures will be temporary and not tackle the root causes of the problem. Some 15.8 per cent were undecided.

The respondents also approved of the President`s measures to ease customs registration procedures, ensure transparency and eliminate monopoly. Some 61 per cent believe that these measures will stimulate the development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship (25.3 per cent are sure, while 35.7 per cent believe they will likely help). Some 18.7 per cent are pessimistic about the effectiveness of these measures (8.5 per cent said they “will not help”, 10.2 per cent chose “are unlikely to help” option). Some 20 per cent of the respondents remained undecided.

The poll also revealed that the temporary pessimism caused by devaluation of the national currency was already disappearing. Some 63 per cent of Baku residents believe that state measures pave the way for the stabilization of the national currency exchange rate. Some 15 per cent were pessimistic, while 20 per cent were undecided.

The survey demonstrated that population of Baku approve of the country`s foreign policy and economic measures.

The report is based on the results of 'omnibus' type of public opinion survey, which was held in Baku on April 18-19. Conducted among nearly 800 people aged between 18 and over, the poll featured a “face-to-face” interviewing method. Its inaccuracy is 3.5 percent.