Less than half of Russians, about 47-48 percent, are paying attention to the campaign trail ahead of December 4 parliamentary elections, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.
The voters most interested in the election campaign are backers of A Just Russia party (64 percent of those polled) and parties that usually do not get seats in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Parliament (66 percent of those polled), leading Russian polling agency VTsIOM said.
The vast majority of young people (74 percent) said they have no interest in the elections.
Despite skyrocketing internet use in Russia, 59 percent of those who took part in the poll called TV their main source of information about the election campaign. Print media and radio stations are far less popular – 19 and 14 percent, respectively, said they are getting information from them.
A similar poll, held prior to the 2003 parliamentary elections, showed that some 60 percent of Russians were keeping tabs on the election campaign.
The survey of 1,600 people in 46 regions was held on November 26-27. The margin of error is 3.4%.
History of State Duma elections in Russia