PM Kamla gets 81 per cent approval rating in Guardian poll; PP gov't at 80 per cent

An opinion poll conducted for the Guardian media group has suggested that while the People's Partnership government has suffered some serious setbacks in its eight months in office, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar still enjoys a favourable and high approval rating of 81 per cent among the national population.

The random poll of 509 respondents was done by digital dialling nationwide between February 3 and 6 this year by the Ansa Mcal Psychological Research Centre of the University of the West Indies at St Augustine.

It rated the performance of Persad-Bissessar and the People's Partnership in five categories. This is how the Prime Minister fared in each category:

• excellent - 12 per cent
• good - 31 per cent
• fair - 38 per cent
• poor - 14 per cent
• extremely poor - 5 per cent

When the figures are tallied it shows that despite some disappointments and a few significant missteps, the biggest of which was the SSA matter, Persad-Bisssar's approval rating stands at 81 per cent.

The SSA matter is what caused the biggest concern and hurt the image of the PM the most. However, she won points for taking responsibility for the SSA affair.

The poll suggested that Persad-Bissessar would do better if she were to adopt a more proactive approach to communicating government policies.

Respondents also felt that she should take greater control of her ministers.

The poll also found that those who rated the PM as "fair" believe that while Persad-Bissessar has done a good job she still faces a number of problems that need to be addressed. These include crime, which remains unacceptable.

The respondents who gave a score of "good" also felt that the PM has done her best but is dealing with an uphill struggle coping with the the problems she inherited from the former Manning PNM administration. 


With respect to the government's performance, here is how the ratings broke down:

• Excellent - eight per cent
• Good-29 per cent
• Fair-43 per cent
• Poor-15 per cent
• Extremely Poor-five per cent

That is an overall approval rating of 80 per cent for the government, despite a lot of negative media and obvious mistakes.

The biggest concern among respondents was the perception that the partnership lacks unity.

The poll suggested that some people feel that the government needs more time to adjust and deliver while others felt that some campaign promises were broken.