More than two-thirds of Iranians are dissatisfied with their country's economic situation and most blame corruption and mismanagement, according to the first major poll of Iranian public opinion conducted since large-scale demonstrations broke out in late December.

Economic slogans predominated during the protests, which spread to more than 100 provincial cities and towns, although chants against Iran’s leaders and Islamic system were also prevalent. A near-unanimous 96% of those surveyed in the new poll said the current government should do more to combat financial and bureaucratic corruption, while about 16% said Iran needs fundamental political change.

The telephone survey of 1,002 Iranians, by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and IranPoll.com, was conducted Jan. 16-24, only a few days after the demonstrations subsided. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.

Asked why anyone should trust the answers, given the restrictive nature of the Iranian system, Ebrahim Mohseni, a research scholar at CISSM who designed the poll and who has been studying Iranian public opinion since 2006, defended his methodology. He told Al-Monitor that the latest findings were in line with previous surveys and that respondents select "quite a few responses that are far from the official positions of the Islamic Republic."