In November I participated in two surveys online by loyal to the Uzbek government Uzniform information agency and couldn’t wait to share with its final results with you. Want to emphasize in advance that results are available in public which is more than surprising since they are not in favor of the current political regime.

So here comes…

#1. (see the original chart in Russian below) “Do you know that December 27 [2009] elections to the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis and region, district and city Kengashes of people’s deputies will be held?”

Time frame: October 28 – November 10, 2009
Number of respondents: 159

Finalized responses are as following:
Yes 40.9% (65)
No 51.6% (82)
Difficult to answer 7.5% (12)

#2. (see the original chart in Russian below) “How dou you evaluate current activities of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis?”

Time frame: November 17-30, 2009
Number of respondents: 171

Finalized responses are as following:
Positive 14.1% (24)
More positive than negative 9.9% (17)
Neutral 8.8% (15)
More negative than positive 8.8% (15)
Negative 52% (89)
Difficult to answer 6.4% (11)

Really, really impressive: in both surveys more than a half respondents answered negatively. In addition, in the second one 8.8% of respondents decided to mark ‘More negative than positive’ which is also not in favor of our legislative branch of power we have. Thus, the whole picture shows that people, first of all, don’t know what-the-heck is happening and, secondly, more people are dissatisfied with the work of the legislators.

What does it mean? I can’t generzlize the results of surveys but for the people who have access to internet it means that most of them don’t even want to find out about upcoming events in Uzbekistan’s political life. Why? It’s the absence of feeling themselves a part of a strong and independent civil society in the country.

If the official media authorities can regulate the results provided by the information agency it’s difficult to imagine what would happen if surveys were taken by independent websites.