People still strongly in support of the Government, but confidence level slipping

Opinion polls between January 26 to February 4 by the Business Times (BT) and its polling partner, Research Consultancy Bureau (RCB) to gauge the performance of the new Government drew varied responses.

The surveys - through email and on the street - were conducted on two separate dates; one before the budget and one after the budget. The purpose was to ascertain whether the views of the respondents had changed and were guided by the many concessions given to ordinary people in the budget.

What was striking in the pre and post budget polls was that while people were still strongly supportive of the new regime, the level of confidence in the Government’s ability to deliver on all the promises made during the election campaign, varied in both polls. In the post budget poll, the confidence level had come down.

The questions dealt with common issues that figured during the election cam- paign: Freedom of speech, abuse of power, corruption and the rule of law among other concerns. The graphic shows the results of the BT polls while the table provides details of the RCB poll. Also included in this page are the comments expressed to the BT and the RCB by respondents.