On 10 March, the International Republican Institute (IRI) published the results of its national polls conducted in Armenia between 8 February and 16 February 2021. The sample included 1,510 Armenian citizens.

45% of the questioned said that Armenia was heading in the wrong direction, while 31% said that it was heading in the right direction and 21% were undecided over the country’s future. In regard to the citizen’s beliefs, the polls have shown that a high degree of uncertainty in the country prevails, with 24% believing that the future would be definitely better, 25% saying that it would be somewhat better, 25% of the citizen’s expressing fear for their future and 24% expressing total disbelief in the country’s future. 

The institution with the most trust in the country was the army, with 50% of the questioned having a very favourable opinion on the institution, followed by the Human Rights Defenders Office (30%), the Armenian Apostolic Church (30%) and the prime minister’s office (29%). The most distrusted institutions were the political parties (51% had a very unfavourable opinion), the National Assembly (42%), the president’s office (40%) and the courts (35%). 

Economy/unemployment was considered the most burning problem Armenia faces (11% first response, 10% second response), followed by political instability (12%, 7%), need for military reform (8%,4%) and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (9%,3%). To the question on what the government should focus on after 9 November trilateral ceasefire agreement, the most frequent answer was focusing on domestic issues such as economy, political stability and social issues (97% answered with “yes”), followed by the ensuring the secure return of the Armenian residents to Karabakh (92%) and the renegotiation of the ceasefire agreement (85%). 

In regard to the question of holding snap parliamentary elections in the country, 57% of the questioned said that the elections should be held in spring 2021, 13% in summer of 2021, 13% in autumn 2021 and 7% after autumn 2021. To the question of who should oversee the snap elections, the current Armenian government was highlighted as the most trustworthy institution (34% absolutely would entrust it), followed by a caretaker government comprised of professionals (18%), a collaborative government consisting of the ruling party and the opposition (13%) and the transitional government consisting only of the opposition (6%). The ruling Civil Contract/My Step party enjoyed the biggest popularity amongst the questioned, with 33% saying that they would vote for them, followed by Prosperous Armenia (3%) and Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan (2%), while the other political forces in the country enjoyed only 1% trust from the questioned.  

When it comes to Armenia’s media landscape, the most trusted sources of information were Public TV (16% first choice, 6% second choice), followed by Shant (10%, 7%), Armenia (9%,7%) the Armenian Radio Free Europe (Azatutyun, 8%, 3%) and Armnews (6%, 1%) with the other media channels in the country enjoying only 1% of trust.