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| Conference on The Arab Spring: Results of the Arab Youth Opinion Poll, Dr. Ezzeddine Abdelmoula - Head of Research (right), Dr. Salah Eddin - Director of Al Jazeera Centre for Studies (left) |
Doha – 29 July/Tamuz 2013: The most recent poll conducted by the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies between the months of April/Nisan and May/Ayyar included 8,045 young men and women and revealed that the countries of the Arab Spring that witnessed popular revolutions in the past two and half years are still not stable and that the fate of the change that overthrew the systems of governance in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen is still open to all possibilities, despite the divergence in transitional paths. The poll, which was carried out by the Sigma Conseil company for the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, showed that the position of the youth in new institutions of governance is not commensurate with the role they played in the success of the revolutions. On the contrary, the political marginalization that this age group experiences varies in many of the issues covered by the survey.
One of the main findings of the survey was that more than 90% of the young people surveyed refrain from partisan affiliation and do not want to belong to any political party in the future. The majority of the respondents stressed that the parliamentary bodies and councils that were formed after the revolution do not represent them. On the subject of identity, Egypt was an exception in that most of those surveyed identified themselves as Egyptian, while most of the young people in Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen put their affiliation with Islam before their national and patriotic affiliation. All agreed that Islamic law is the main source of legislation. On the other hand, more than 70% of young people refuse to accept military intervention in political life and expressed their desire for the military establishment to remain far from politics.
On the subject of the risks that threaten the countries of the Arab Spring, respondents unanimously agreed that unemployment is the most prominent of these risks, and that the security and economic situation are at the forefront of challenges facing the Arab revolutions.
In terms of human rights, most of those surveyed acknowledged improvement in this area, as they also expressed their satisfaction with progress in the areas of freedom of expression and freedom of the press compared to pre-revolutionary conditions.
Despite their negative assessment of the pace of change in the transitional phase and their dissatisfaction with what has been achieved in many areas, most notably the economy, services, and social justice, most of the young people expressed optimism about the future, and that these revolutions will achieve their objectives, especially after the achievements witnessed in the area of freedoms and human rights.