High level of awareness on controversial issues

An unusual discovery: The working class and other middle and lower segments of society in Galle have shown a surprisingly high level of awareness on the Colombo Port City, the Central Bank bond issue and the coal tender compared to those in Colombo, a BT-RCB poll this week revealed.

The poll tackled some fundamental issues of awareness. Respondents were asked whether they were aware of the Central Bank bond issue, the coal tender, the re-awarding of the highway contracts for Kandy-Colombo, the Port City and a new railway line between Trincomalee and Medawachchiya, and if so whether these projects were transparent.

The RCB sample, in this case a total of 588 respondents in Colombo and Galle, was conducted on the street with respondents being office workers, housewives, students and other categories that one confronts on streets and bus and rail stations. Asked whether they were aware of the bond issue, 83 per cent in Galle said ‘Yes’ while the ‘Yes’ vote in Colombo was slightly lower at 78 per cent, another surprise as Galle respondents were more aware than those in Colombo. In the BT email poll conducted mostly amongst professionals, the level of awareness on this question was even lower at 75 per cent.

The same level of awareness (Galle higher than Colombo) was seen in the coal tender with Galle at a high 84 per cent ‘Yes’ and Colombo at 75 per cent while the ‘Yes’ response in the BT poll was lower at 64 per cent. In the case of the Port City, Galle was slightly lower at 89 per cent (Yes) against Colombo at 96 per cent while it was 90 per cent in the BT poll. Both Galle and Colombo data have been calculated separately but combined to give an overall (joint) percentage in the results shown on Page 2.