Manipulations related to Pashinyan’s rating

A number of unsubstantiated articles on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ratings have been published in the Armenian press over the last few months. They are also widespread on Facebook pages with political orientation.

The real picture

The only recent publicly available survey on Pashinyan’s rating was conducted in the period between April 30 and May 9 by MPG-Armenia, which is full member of GALLUP International Association in Armenia. It revealed that Pashinyan’s activity is positively assessed by 81.6 percent of respondents, and his working style was positively assessed by 84.2 percent of the respondents. According to the same organization, Pashinyan’s rating dropped by 7.4% compared to September 2018 (89%).

Groundless figures presented by media

On March 20, the “Fact” newspaper wrote that Pashinyan was “shown the results of the latest surveys that indicate that the prime minister’s rating has dropped dramatically and fluctuates within 52-53%.”

On March 28, Hraparak daily reported similar figures. According to the newspaper, “an investigation by an American organization revealed that Nikol Pashinyan’s rating was 51% in late January and has a tendency to decline.”

“Zhamanak” daily wrote on May 9 that the NSS had conducted a public opinion survey and found that the Prime Minister’s rating “continues to fall, registering a new anti-record, namely, 34 percent.”

Manipulations of Facebook pages

Digital News and Paradox Media Facebook pages, which have an obviously anti-government orientation and often publish information with manipulative content, published false information about Pashinyan’s rating almost at the same time on May 10.

The Digital News page cited a Gallup International poll, but did not show the complete picture. It is the same survey we have mentioned above.

The point is that Pashinyan’s working style as Prime Minister was positively assessed not by 29.9 percent, but 84.2 percent. 29.9 percent is the percent of those who have given the answer “totally positive”, but 54.3 percent assessed Pashinyan’s working style as “rather positive”. Thus, the publication has provided an incomplete account of the results.

The second Facebook page, Paradox Media, makes no reference to any surveys, claiming that Pashinyan’s “rating is falling dramatically”. The picture shows the alleged decline in Pashinyan’s rating to 31 percent as of May 2019.