Last updated: May 30, 2026
The International Republican Institute (IRI) is a Washington-based democracy assistance organization funded primarily by the U.S. government through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID, with additional grants from the U.S. Department of State. IRI is one of four core institutes of the NED and operates in dozens of countries with the stated goal of advancing democratic governance. Its Armenia polling program produces regular survey data on public opinion, party support, and attitudes toward governance and foreign policy. Groong covers IRI polling as a key indicator of voter sentiment ahead of the 2026 Armenian Parliamentary Election and as a lens into how Armenians view the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process , the 44-Day War , and Armenia’s strategic alignment between Russia, the West, and Iran. The fact that IRI is a U.S. government-funded institution is relevant context for evaluating its findings and the political environment in which its surveys are conducted; Groong examines both its data and methodological questions raised by analysts, including debates over sample size, response rates, and the gap between public responses and actual voting behavior.
Episodes featuring IRI data have tracked shifts in party support, attitudes toward the Armenian Church , trust in government institutions, and voter participation intentions. In March 2026, Groong discussed the latest IRI poll with Hrant Mikaelian , examining its contested methodology and findings alongside the emerging shape of Armenia’s parliamentary race. A May 2026 episode analyzed new IRI results in the context of widening gaps between public disclosure of voting preferences and actual voter behavior, a phenomenon known as “hidden votes” that suggests voters may be concealing their true intentions from pollsters. These hidden votes matter because they can mask actual opposition strength, making seat projections and threshold calculations unreliable.
IRI polling data appears alongside MPG Poll results in Groong’s coverage of Armenian electoral and political trends. Episodes have used both sources to examine structural obstacles facing the established opposition, including media imbalance, weak opposition reach, state resource concentration, and administrative pressure against opposition figures and civil society activists. Groong’s analysis of IRI data reflects the broader editorial approach of treating polling as one tool among many for understanding Armenian politics, while remaining attentive to the limits of survey methodology in capturing voters’ true intentions in an environment where state control over media and administrative levers creates incentives for voters to hide their preferences from public disclosure.
Below are all Groong episodes tagged with IRI Armenia Poll.
Episode 415 | Recorded: February 6, 2025
Episode 415 | Recorded: February 6, 2025
Episode 317 | Recorded: March 16, 2024
Episode 317 | Recorded: March 16, 2024
Episode 268 | Recorded: July 10, 2023
Episode 268 | Recorded: July 10, 2023
Episode 252 | Recorded: May 9, 2023
Episode 252 | Recorded: May 9, 2023
Armenian News Network - Groong Week in Review - Sep 11, 2022
Topics:
Index: 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:52 Guests 00:01:18 Topics 00:02:20 Greetings 00:02:24 MPG and IRI Poll Results 00:21:54 Armenian Economy Dynamics 00:37:13 US-Armenia Relations 00:48:06 Geopolitics, the War in Ukraine 00:55:14 Rants, Personal Statements 00:56:17 Good byes 00:56:27 Closing comments
Guest: