The poll commissioned by the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI) indicates a continuing drop in his popularity. The previous IRI survey conducted last September put Pashinian’s rating at 16 percent.
Armenia’s current opposition leaders remain even more distrusted by citizens. The findings of the poll released late on Monday show that the presumably most popular of them, former President Robert Kocharian, enjoys only 4 percent trust.
The pollsters interviewed some 1,500 people across the country by phone shortly before Samvel Karapetian, a Russian-Armenian billionaire controversially arrested in Yerevan on June 18, announced plans to set up a new opposition group to challenge Pashinian. Some observers believe that Karapetian could win over many voters who support neither the government nor the mainstream opposition.
As much as 61 percent of those polled said they do not trust any politician. Accordingly, 40 percent said they would not vote or would spoil their ballots if parliamentary elections were held next Sunday. Only 17 percent pledged to vote for Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, down from 20 percent reported by the IRI last September.
Armenia’s next general elections are due to take place in June 2026. Pashinian is expected to make his “peace agenda” with Azerbaijan the central theme of his party’s election campaign. He has been trying hard to get Azerbaijan to sign an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty finalized by the two sides in March this year.
The Armenian opposition maintains that the treaty would not bring real peace because continuing concessions made by Pashinian only encourage Baku to make more demands jeopardizing Armenia’s very existence as a viable state.
According to the IRI, less than half of respondents support the signing of the still unpublicized treaty. Support for it is the lowest among citizens aged between 18 and 35. Only 38 percent of them fully or partially approve of the peace deal.
The poll also found a further drop in the proportion of citizens who believe that Armenia is “heading in the right direction.” Only 36 percent of them think so now, compared with 49 percent who feel that their country is on the wrong track.