KAZAKHSTAN: DESPITE DOWNTURN, NAZARBAYEV’S NUMBERS STAY UP

Although Kazakhstan has been battered by the global financial downturn, the Central Asian nation’s citizens are still upbeat. Recent polling data shows that economic troubles have not dented the popularity of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s administration, and that a healthy majority believes the country is moving in the right direction.

The results of a Kazakhstan National Opinion Poll -- conducted May 9-23 and presented recently in Almaty -- provide a welcome boost to the administration as it implements its $18 billion anti-crisis program. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Baltic Surveys Ltd and The Gallup Organization conducted the opinion survey of 1,516 people in all regions of Kazakhstan for the International Republican Institute (IRI). Funding was provided by the National Endowment for Democracy.

The research shows that, while 78 percent agree that Kazakhstan is in the midst of a "serious financial crisis," some three-quarters of people (74 percent) approve of the way Nazarbayev and his government are handling it, and nearly a quarter (22 percent) consider authorities’ handling of the credit crunch to be "very good." According to the poll, which has a margin of error of 2.5 percent, a total of 76 percent believe Kazakhstan is heading largely in the right direction.