Majority supports PM, but are divided over country’s direction: Survey

The majority of voters in the country support the activities of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his government, but are divided over the country’s present direction, according to a survey report unveiled by Doppler Research on Wednesday.

“The Approval Rating Survey,” conducted by Doppler Research, with support from Innovision Consulting, this month hints at “cautionary hope” among the voters over the BNP government’s 180 days in office.

The survey highlights that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman commands greater support compared with the government not only among all the voters surveyed, but also among the voter bases of opposing parties.

For example, Tarique enjoys 66.3% support among the general voters, and 65.5% among supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, the opposition party in the parliament, 65.8% among supporters of NCP, and 52.5% backing among supporters of Awami League, now a banned political party but historically the strongest political rival of the ruling BNP.

The BNP government in general supports 54.5% support, more than 10% less than the support for the PM. All the different party-aligned voter bases have similar share of support for the government in its first six months.

Worryingly, however, less than half the respondents supported the direction the country has taken under the BNP government. Almost 48.6% respondents said they believed the country was headed in the right direction, but 35.6% said the opposite, while 15.8% others declined to respond.

The share of “no responses” was highest on the question over the country’s direction among all the questions presented in the survey. Furthermore, the gap between supporters of BNP and other major parties was also the biggest on this issue.

Most of the respondents said they are doing worse during BNP’s six months in office, compared with the previous year, and only 38.1% people believe the situation would improve in the next 12 months.

The respondents pinpointed the energy and fuel crisis as the biggest crisis the country faces at the moment followed by elevated consumer inflation, law and order situation and unemployment.

Almost 90% respondent voters said the BNP government was doing worse in tackling the energy situation compared with the previous year, and almost 70% said the government was doing worse in tacking the inflation crisis.