By Kayhan Life Staff
A survey by the Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA), which operates under the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution (SCCR), indicates that public dissatisfaction with the country’s situation has reached roughly 92 percent.
In recent days, several domestic media outlets have reported partial findings from an ISPA survey evaluating the “success of governments.”
The full results have not been released.
According to the head of public communications in the Presidential Office, the survey was conducted last year ahead of President Massoud Pezeshkian’s visits to 16 provinces. Its purpose was to measure public satisfaction with local officials and assess whether citizens’ demands were being effectively addressed.
Rouydad 24, a Tehran-based news outlet that published portions of the data, reported that dissatisfaction with the state of the country stood at about 92 percent.
Earlier reports cited the same figure but offered no additional details.
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According to Rouydad 24, the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005–2013) received the highest satisfaction rating, while the governments of Hassan Rouhani (2013–2021) and the current President, Massoud Pezeshkian (in office since 2024), ranked lowest.
Sources familiar with the study note that Tehran’s results differ from those of other regions, with Ahmadinejad being less popular in the capital.
Nationally, however, his administration ranks first, followed by those of Ebrahim Raisi (2021–2024), Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005), Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989–1997), former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi (1981–1989), and Hassan Rouhani.
Satisfaction with Pezeshkian’s first year places him at the bottom of the list.
Rouydad 24, citing informed sources, confirmed the accuracy of the figures but said the decision to release the full report rests with ISPA, which currently has no plans to publish it.
The outlet added that the survey was never intended for public release; it was meant for a limited group of institutions and officials within the establishment.
What has leaked so far reflects only the ranking of governments, while the full report also contains ISPA’s interpretive analysis, which it describes as more significant than the raw data.
Mohammad-Javad Javadi-Yeganeh, social advisor and head of public communications in the Presidential Office, wrote on Instagram that the current government’s low ranking does not necessarily indicate weaker performance but rather that it reflects broader economic and social conditions.
He added that surveys commissioned by the Presidential Office are designed more to gauge public sentiment toward the political system as a whole than to evaluate the administration specifically.
Javadi-Yeganeh also explained that the polls were conducted before the president’s provincial trips to assess satisfaction with local officials. A chart he shared shows that most respondents rated provincial officials’ performance as “poor to average,” and 59 percent said members of parliament were performing poorly.
He noted that President Pezeshkian views high public dissatisfaction as an indication of shortcomings in government performance.
“The Iranian president does not attempt to reinterpret results, adjust questions, or change sampling methods,” Javadi-Yeganeh said. “Instead, he sees acknowledging dissatisfaction as the first step toward addressing it, with future surveys intended to measure whether improvements have been made.”
Other surveys have reached similar conclusions. A 2022 poll by the Statist Institute evaluating six political figures also found Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be the most popular and Hassan Rouhani the least.
