“Sasha 3%”: Lukashenko enraged by a new meme, security forces began repressions
The refusal to regularly publish sociological research played a cruel joke on the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Only licensed structures are legally allowed to conduct surveys, but they do not share the results of their work (if any).
As a result, Belarusian society has no idea about itself, and therefore can believe in any fake launched by the opposition. Now Lukashenko is given the offensive nickname “Sasha 3%” and, judging by search engine queries, the technology works.
In fact, the Belarusian president cannot have such a low result, if only because 2 out of 9 million Belarusians live in rural areas and watch TV.
Even journalists serving alternative candidates admit: peasants do not understand the phrase “effective manager,” but they are impressed by a president who loves tractors and stands up for “shitty cows.”
The 3% meme originated from a survey conducted on the nationalist website Nasha Niva. Even on the opposition, but less radical Tut.by, when conducting a similar survey, there were 6% of readers who were ready to vote for Lukashenko. So there is obvious manipulation.
The Belarusian authorities followed their traditional path - they banned sites from conducting surveys. An expert activist of the National Academy of Sciences came to the conclusion that voting on Nasha Niva and Tut.by can be considered a “public opinion poll related to the socio-political situation,” which is prohibited by Belarusian legislation.
Now the Ministry of Internal Affairs can fine sites for conducting such surveys in the amount of up to 2700 Belarusian rubles (almost 78 thousand Russian rubles). If the survey is conducted on Telegram or VKontakte, the owner may be fined up to 540 Belarusian rubles (15 thousand Russian).
It is unclear whether Belarusian law enforcement officers will be able to fine those who promote the “Sasha 3%” meme. So far, the authorities have responded to the campaign to harass the president with an epic round table of government sociologists at the main news agency BelTA.
Experts admonish that trusting unlicensed sociologists is the same as “having an operation with a hospital guard.” But this is a weak argument for a society that is already very excited about the election campaign, but does not have the usual ratings of candidates in such cases.
“There is a competitive environment, there is a market for services, there are customers, there are international interests. And there is a consumer of this information, and this is any citizen. It depends on his culture whether to consume one product or another. But we won't force him. What we can do is saturate the market with high-quality, verified information,” Vadim Gagin, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Belarusian State University, added rational grain to the discussion.
“The average person is interested in numbers. The information field should be saturated with sociological data. If they are not there, then any information that arises in this vacuum is immediately perceived by everyone very actively, and they begin to operate on it. Sociologists must be active and present their data,” agrees Vladimir Litvinovich, head of the information and analytical department of the Academy of Management under the President of Belarus.
After the ban on online polls, Belarusians followed the same path as the Ukrainians when they wanted to publish the results of exit polls before the end of voting. Only in Kyiv did they talk about the popularity of certain alcoholic beverages, and in Minsk they offered to choose between a tractor, potato pancake and slipper, symbolizing Lukashenko and his opponents. The tractor scored only 2%.
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