A recent poll conducted by a credible Iranian university centre concerning the post-election events of 2009 has found that 56 percent of participants believe President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s popularity has declined over the past year, while just 22 percent believe it has increased.

Opinions of Ahmadinejad in the capital Tehran declined, despite the fact that the president’s cabinet enjoys a monopoly over state television and radio stations. Over the past two years, dozens of reformist publications have been shut down, and journalists and political activists critical of the government’s policies have been arrested and imprisoned.

According to the poll, conducted in Tehran in June by the Iranian Student Polling Agency (ISPA), two-thirds of the 1,172 people surveyed believe that dissatisfaction with the government remains widespread, if largely covert. ISPA is related to Jahad Daneshgahi, an academic body that operates under the oversight of the High Council for Cultural Revolution, which is headed by President Ahmadinejad. Jahad Daneshgahi is managed by a Board of Trustees whose members include the minister of Science, Research, and Technology, a deputy president, the Supreme Leader’s representative at the universities, and the minister of health and medical education. The organisation is well known for the surveys it conducts for governmental and security agencies.

A few months before Ahmadinejad’s first term election in 2005, ISPA conducted a nationwide survey in which a majority said that the candidate who addresses people’s economic concerns had the best chance of winning the elections.

Eighteen percent of those who participated in the latest survey believe that the government was able to control the post-election protests. Evaluating the performance of Iran’s state-run radio and television, which played a pivotal role in broadcasting the government’s version of events, more than 75 percent of the survey participants said that the media’s performance was below average (50 percent said weak or very weak).

Eighty percent of the survey participants said that economic issues such as inflation, lack of affordable housing and unemployment were their main priorities. Lack of political and social freedoms was rated at just seven percent, international threats such as military attacks or economic sanctions related to the country’s nuclear proramme at four percent, and weakening Islamic values at six percent. In recent months, the Iranian police have aggressively tried to enforce a strict Hijab on Iranian youth and women, following a conservative backlash against perceived loosening of the Islamic dress code. But the survey implies that the worsening economic situation has now overshadowed these kinds of social issues.

Details of the survey appeared last week on the Kalame website, which has ties to Mousavi. Since then, conservative websites like Rajanews have challenged the results as biased.

Foreign polling organisations are not allowed to operate inside Iran, even with the cooperation of local partners. In 2002, the Iranian security forces arrested Abbas Abadi, a prominent politician who ran a polling institute in Tehran that conducted a poll on behalf of Gallup.

source: IPS News