Support growing for AL govt: IRI survey

43pc want fresh polls

Despite a continuing partisan divide on electoral issues, the ruling Awami League government has gained support of a majority of Bangladeshi respondents, says a survey conducted by United States-based International Republican Institute (IRI) in June 2015. This recent survey follows a similar evaluation carried out by the organization in September 2014.
The poll results also indicated positive public feelings about Bangladesh's current economic position and optimism about both the respondents' and the country's economic futures.
However, survey respondents cited corruption as their dominant concern.
The survey, forwarded by the Bangladesh chapter of IRI, was based on face-to-face interviews with a randomly selected sample of 2,550 voting aged adults from May 23 - June 10, 2015. Conducted in cooperation with international research firm Global Strategic Partners, the nationally representative sample was drawn from all 64 districts in the seven divisions of Bangladesh. The margin of error for the aggregate sample does not exceed plus or minus two percent at the midrange with a confidence level of 95 percent, said the surveying organisation.
As per the survey, in the 18 months following Bangladesh’s parliamentary elections on January 5, 2014, support for the Awami League government and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached 66 and 67 per cent respectively.
Bangladeshis were increasingly optimistic about the prospects for the country, with 62 per cent of respondents indicating they believed the country was headed in the right direction (up from 56 per cent in a September 2014 IRI survey).
Furthermore, 72 per cent rated overall economic conditions positively, 68 per cent felt security conditions were good in Bangladesh, and 64 per cent were positive regarding Bangladesh’s political stability.

The effects of the January 2014 elections were evident in the persistence of a sharp division regarding new elections - respondents were almost equally divided when asked about when they would like the next national elections to occur. Forty-three per cent of respondents in the survey indicated a desire for new elections to be held immediately, similar to an IRI survey conducted in September 2014, when 40 per cent stated they wanted immediate elections. Forty per cent wanted the current parliament to fulfill its term, down slightly from 45 per cent of respondents in September 2014.
With the decline of electoral violence and daily hartals, 24 per cent of Bangladeshis cited corruption as the most important problem facing the country, nearly 10 points higher than political instability (16 per cent) and security (15 per cent), which were cited as the second and third most important problems facing Bangladesh.
Though the government received positive marks on the whole, 47 per cent of respondents do not see the government as fully engaged in or capable of fighting corruption.
Eleven per cent of respondents said they had paid a bribe; more than half said they had paid at least Tk 5,000. One-third of those who acknowledged making payments had paid the police or courts to obtain justice, 29 per cent had done so for a license or permit and 25 per cent had paid for job considerations.

Support growing for AL govt: IRI survey

43pc want fresh polls

Despite a continuing partisan divide on electoral issues, the ruling Awami League government has gained support of a majority of Bangladeshi respondents, says a survey conducted by United States-based International Republican Institute (IRI) in June 2015. This recent survey follows a similar evaluation carried out by the organization in September 2014. The poll results also indicated positive public feelings about Bangladeshs current economic position and optimism about both the respondents and the countrys economic futures. However, survey respondents cited corruption as their dominant concern. The survey, forwarded by the Bangladesh chapter of IRI, was based on face-to-face interviews with a randomly selected sample of 2,550 voting aged adults from May 23 - June 10, 2015. Conducted in cooperation with international research firm Global Strategic Partners, the nationally representative sample was drawn from all 64 districts in the seven divisions of Bangladesh. The margin of error for the aggregate sample does not exceed plus or minus two percent at the midrange with a confidence level of 95 percent, said the surveying organisation. As per the survey, in the 18 months following Bangladeshs parliamentary elections on January 5, 2014, support for the Awami League government and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached 66 and 67 per cent respectively. Bangladeshis were increasingly optimistic about the prospects for the country, with 62 per cent of respondents indicating they believed the country was headed in the right direction (up from 56 per cent in a September 2014 IRI survey). Furthermore, 72 per cent rated overall economic conditions positively, 68 per cent felt security conditions were good in Bangladesh, and 64 per cent were positive regarding Bangladeshs political stability. The effects of the January 2014 elections were evident in the persistence of a sharp division regarding new elections - respondents were almost equally divided when asked about when they would like the next national elections to occur. Forty-three per cent of respondents in the survey indicated a desire for new elections to be held immediately, similar to an IRI survey conducted in September 2014, when 40 per cent stated they wanted immediate elections. Forty per cent wanted the current parliament to fulfill its term, down slightly from 45 per cent of respondents in September 2014. With the decline of electoral violence and daily hartals, 24 per cent of Bangladeshis cited corruption as the most important problem facing the country, nearly 10 points higher than political instability (16 per cent) and security (15 per cent), which were cited as the second and third most important problems facing Bangladesh. Though the government received positive marks on the whole, 47 per cent of respondents do not see the government as fully engaged in or capable of fighting corruption. Eleven per cent of respondents said they had paid a bribe; more than half said they had paid at least Tk 5,000. One-third of those who acknowledged making payments had paid the police or courts to obtain justice, 29 per cent had done so for a license or permit and 25 per cent had paid for job considerations.