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Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

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Annex 7. Op<strong>in</strong>ion Poll on Government Relations<br />

with Mongolian Civil Society<br />

The purpose of the op<strong>in</strong>ion poll was to gauge popular views on the relationship between the Government<br />

of Mongolia and Mongolian civil society. The study was conducted <strong>in</strong> May 2005 by Sant Maral, a<br />

Mongolian NGO with extensive experience <strong>in</strong> op<strong>in</strong>ion poll<strong>in</strong>g. 114 There were slightly more than 600<br />

randomly selected respondents to the poll; half of them reside <strong>in</strong> Ulaanbaatar, while the rest reside <strong>in</strong><br />

three other randomly selected aimags. One of the aimags is Uvorkhangai, where we conducted <strong>in</strong>terviews<br />

to confirm our f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs from the capital and strengthen the case studies. 115<br />

In evaluat<strong>in</strong>g Mongolia’s political economy, the two most important issues identified by respondents<br />

were economic issues, although they generally considered the economy to be better than the political<br />

situation <strong>in</strong> Mongolia today (Questions A-C). After unemployment (53 percent) and poverty (38 percent),<br />

the third most important issue cited was corruption (24 percent), which nearly all respondents consider to<br />

be a serious political obstacle (Question G).<br />

One of the most significant f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs from the poll was that the overwhelm<strong>in</strong>g majority of respondents (92<br />

percent) <strong>in</strong>dicated that they knew little to noth<strong>in</strong>g about civil society organizations (Question Q1). This<br />

may expla<strong>in</strong> why the level of confidence <strong>in</strong> CSOs was extremely low (29 percent), especially when<br />

contrasted with the prime m<strong>in</strong>ister (60 percent) and the president (69 percent), though not nearly as low as<br />

either the judiciary (24 percent), or political parties (14 percent), with which the ord<strong>in</strong>ary citizens<br />

presumably have greater familiarity (Question I). The respondents’ assessment of the role and <strong>in</strong>fluence<br />

of CSOs should be considered <strong>in</strong> this light.<br />

A. What is your op<strong>in</strong>ion of the current economic situation <strong>in</strong> Mongolia?<br />

Very good .3%<br />

Good 7%<br />

Mixed 54%<br />

Bad 33%<br />

Very bad 5%<br />

Don’t know 1%<br />

B. What is your op<strong>in</strong>ion of the current political situation <strong>in</strong> Mongolia?<br />

Very good .2%<br />

Good 8%<br />

Mixed 39%<br />

Bad 42%<br />

Very bad 7%<br />

Don’t know 4%<br />

114 Recent Politobarometer polls conducted by Sant Maral are available at the Open Society Forum Web site www.sorros.org.mn.<br />

115 Although several NGOs <strong>in</strong> Uvorkhangai responded to our questionnaire, the overwhelm<strong>in</strong>g majority of respondents to the<br />

CSO survey are based <strong>in</strong> Ulaanbaatar (see annex 6).

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