The find­ings of an on­go­ing opin­ion sur­vey be­ing con­duct­ed by Nac­ta over the last week show the Gov­ern­ment and the Prime Min­is­ter's ap­proval rat­ings have slipped from a year ago. The find­ings of the poll are ob­tained from in­ter­views with 682 re­spon­dents (45 per cent In­di­ans, 36 per cent Africans, 18 per cent Mixed, and one per cent Oth­ers) re­flect­ing the de­mo­graph­ics of the pop­u­la­tion. The poll, con­duct­ed over the last week by Vish­nu Bis­ram, has a four per cent mar­gin of er­ror. Asked if they were sat­is­fied with the per­for­mance of the Gov­ern­ment, 34 per cent said yes (down from 70 per cent from a year ago) with 51 per cent say­ing no (up from 28 per cent) and 15 per centof­fer­ing no re­sponse.

Asked if they ap­proved of Kam­la's per­for­mance as Prime Min­is­ter, 57 per cent said yes (down from 82 per cent from a year ago), with 35 per cent dis­ap­prov­ing and eight per cent of­fer­ing no opin­ion. Asked if they ap­proved of Dr Kei­th Row­ley's per­for­mance as Op­po­si­tion Leader, 48 per cent (up by 12 per cent from a year ago) said yes, with 40 per cent dis­ap­prov­ing and 12% say­ing they were not sure. Asked if they sup­port­ed the PM's swift re­vo­ca­tion of Mary King as Plan­ning Min­is­ter, 58 per cent said yes, with 26 per cent say­ing no and 16 per cent of­fer­ing no re­sponse. Op­po­nents felt that King should have been giv­ing a hear­ing be­fore she was ter­mi­nat­ed in much the same way they op­posed the fir­ing of Nizam Mo­hamed.

Asked if they thought the Gov­ern­ment had been trans­par­ent enough in its poli­cies, 39 per cent said yes, 43 per cent said no, and 18 per cent not sure. Asked if they were sat­is­fied with the de­liv­ery of promis­es af­ter a year, 37 per cent said yes, 52 per cent said no and 11% not sure. Asked if the were sat­is­fied that the Gov­ern­ment was do­ing things dif­fer­ent­ly from the PNM, 32% said yes, with 49 per cent say­ing no and 19 per cent not sure. Sup­port­ers felt the PP was more firm than the PNM in con­duct­ing busi­ness. Asked what they thought was the most se­ri­ous prob­lem con­fronting the na­tion, 41 per cent said crime, 24 per cent cor­rup­tion, 19 per cent ris­ing cost of liv­ing, and oth­ers 16 per cent.

Asked which gov­ern­ment bet­ter man­aged crime, 45 per cent said PP, 31 per cent said PNM and 24 per cent not sure or about the same. Most re­spon­dents were not sat­is­fied with gov­ern­ment's han­dling of crime. A lot re­spon­dents felt that Ian Al­leyne did a bet job com­bat­ing crime than the po­lice. Asked which gov­ern­ment bet­ter man­aged the econ­o­my, 43% said PP, 41% PNM and 16% not sure. Asked if they felt con­fi­dent about the fu­ture of T&T, 32% said yes with 53% say­ing no and 15% not sure. The poll al­so queried vot­ers on the pop­u­lar sup­port for the par­ties, can­di­dates for lead­er­ship in COP, and rat­ings of the min­is­ters. These will be re­leased in a sub­se­quent re­port.

NAC­TA POLL

Ap­proval Rat­ing of the Gov­ern­ment

Ap­prove 34

Dis­ap­prove 51

Not Sure 15

Ap­proval rat­ing of Per­sad-Bisses­sar as PM

Ap­prove 57

Dis­ap­prove 35

Not Sure 9

Ap­proval rat­ing of Row­ley as Op­po­si­tion Leader

Ap­prove 48

Dis­ap­prove 40

Not Sure 12

Which gov­ern­ment bet­ter man­aged the econ­o­my

PP 43

PNM 41

Not Sure 16

Which gov­ern­ment bet­ter man­aged crime

PP 47

PNM 40

Not Sure 13