Serzh Sargsyan in first place, followed by Raffi Hovannisian

Due to his high index, the presidential candidate Serzh Sargsyan seems to have contributed to non-nomination of political rivals and he starts his election campaign with 68.6% of votes. Another candidate, Raffi Hovannisian has become his main rival, multiplying the number of his supporters as compared with the 2012 parliamentary elections. If the presidential election were held last week, R. Hovannisian would receive 20.8% of votes.

Surveys show that Serzh Sargsyan is perceived as a person capable of solving foreign policy problems. Raffi Hovannisian is perceived as an alternative candidate, while Hrant Bagratian - as a preferable candidate as the other parties decided not to run in the election.

As for other candidates, Paruyr Hayrikian and Hrant Bargatian received 5% of the votes each. The four other candidates were mostly unfamiliar to respondents and they received less than 1.5% of votes together.

The above-mentioned numbers are the results of a survey conducted by TNS opinion International Center jointly with the local Institute for Political and Sociological Consulting (IPSC).

The survey was conducted at the request of European Friends of Armenia (www.EuFoA.org) with the aim of encouraging fact-based discussions ahead of the election.

“I think the most unexpected result was that 69% of respondents already decided to vote in the elections. This is inspiring, given the fact that three of the six parliamentary forces decided neither to nominate candidates nor to support others,” said

Steve Schwarzer, Director for Methodology and Statistics of TNS opinion’s Brussels Area.

The survey was conducted on January 15-20. 1,607 people were surveyed in all provinces of Armenia.