US University Poll Shows Iranians’s Strong Support for Islamic Republic

Based on the poll, conducted between Jan. 16 and 24, most Iranians strongly disagree with the idea of changing the country’s political system, while a good majority of the population also back up Iran’s regional and missiles policies.

The results of the poll, also cited by Washington Post, showed that just 4.9% of respondents strongly agreed that the political system in Iran needs fundamental change. The finding may somehow explain why the number of rioters was too small during the unrests in late December and early January, when a few thousand took out to the streets in roughly more than a dozen towns and cities to shout protest against the establishment.

Also, with regard to Iran’s missile program that has come under the spotlight ever since Tehran and the six world powers struck a deal over the former’s nuclear capability, the findings of the CISSM poll are very telling. Only 8.8% of participants strongly believed that Iran should spend less money on its missile program.

Meantime, the poll showed that merely 11.3% of respondents strongly agree that the government interferes too much in their personal lives and just 17.2% strongly agree that involvement in Iraq and Syria is not in the country’s national interest.

Also, only 21.5% of those who have taken part in the polling believed that the government should spend less in places like Syria and Iraq.

Meantime, only 21.7% of Iranians strongly agree that the government should not strictly enforce Islamic law, according to the findings of the poll.

Also, 69 percent of Iranians were found to describe the economy in bad shape, the highest measured by IranPoll since it began asking in 2015. This is while 41 percent said the economic condition of their family had worsened over the previous four years.

When asked for their opinion on the US government, 85 percent of Iranians were found to have a very unfavorable opinion of it; less than 1 percent had a very favorable opinion.

Also, the results of the poll showed that 85.2% of respondents believed that the government should do more to fight corruption. 81.3% also wanted the government to do more to limit food prices.

Meantime, 69.2% of subjects strongly agreed that the government shouldn’t cut cash subsidies and 73.2% believed that the government should not increase gasoline prices.

According to the findings of the same poll, 46% of respondents believed that the government should compensate for failed financial institutions. While 44.5% said that the government is not doing enough to help farmers. Some 43% agreed that the government is not doing enough to help the poor.

Another part of the poll indicates that 63% of Iranian people believe that the government should be more forceful to stop rioters while just 9% think that US President Donald Trump’s support for rioters benefited them.

Though US President Donald Trump was among a number of US officials who voiced their support for Iranians during the protests — Trump tweeted five times in three days about the protests at the end of December, offering support for the protesters and criticizing the government — the poll found 48 percent of Iranians felt comments by the American leader and other US officials had no effect.

In general, the poll suggested a broad distrust for the United States among the Iranian public. Though most Iranians still supported the nuclear deal reached with the United States and other countries under the Obama administration, 86 percent had doubts the United States would live up to its obligations under the deal while 42 percent said the United States had violated letter of the agreement.

IranPoll is an independent private full-service public opinion research and consultancy company with global office in Toronto and partner offices in 9 Iranian cities, focusing exclusively on Iran.

The IranPoll series has become one of the best snapshots of public opinion in Iran over recent years, with its polling predictions for the May 2017 presidential elections accurate within less than 2 percentage points.

The CISSM has also been conducting different polls in Iran in cooperation with the University of Tehran and IranPoll for more than two years now.