Dear Editor,
An opinion survey conducted in July by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) has shown President Bharrat Jagdeo with high approval rating with people expressing strong disapproval for most of the members of his government. Voters point to serious governance problems in the country but they attribute blame for the problems to the President’s ministers and other government officials, absolving the President. They say, for the most part, the President is “a good leader” but is surrounded by “individuals who let him down.” They say the “President’s team” should be more performance driven like him and that he should hold government officials at all levels “more accountable.”
NACTA is a New York-based polling group with no affiliation with any political party. It has been conducting polls regularly in the Caribbean, the Pacific and India. The latest Guyana poll was conducted to find out opinion on several wide-ranging issues as well as to determine approval ratings for the President and his government. The poll randomly interviewed 980 likely voters to yield a demographically representative sample of the population. The survey was conducted by several interviewers (from different ethnicities and with many years of experience in survey interviewing) in face-to-face contact and was coordinated by Vishnu Bisram, a pollster and newspaper columnist in New York.
The results of the poll were analyzed at a 95 per cent significance level and a statistical sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points was found. This means that in theory, in 19 cases out of 20, the results based on such a sample will differ by no more than 3 percentage points from what should have been obtained by seeking to interview the whole voting population. Sampling results based on subgroups (such as Indians or Africans) have a larger sampling error.
An approval rating (how well one does his or her job) is an important measure of the performance of and/or electability of a politician or government. According to the findings of the survey, Jagdeo’s approval rating as President is 59% with a disapproval rating of 31% and 10% not offering a response. Jagdeo’s relatively high approval rating is attributed to, among other reasons, his excellent rapport with people from all walks of life, his cabinet outreaches, Low Carbon Development Strategy, and promotion of Guyana internationally. They also note he is action oriented resolving problems quickly that even ministers can’t solve for them.
Asked if they are satisfied with the performance of the government, only 36% said yes with 35% saying no, 16% saying they have a neutral rating of the government, and 13% offering no response. The low popularity of the government is attributed to peoples’ dissatisfaction over the handling of crime, inflation, perceived corruption and other quality of life issues. It should be noted that President Jagdeo’s approval rating is some 23% higher than that of his government and his disapproval rating is 4% lower than the government.
Asked to identify the most important problem facing the country, crime is at the top with 47%, followed by corruption at 17%, the high cost of living at 15%, poor governance (5%), other issues (10%), and 6% offering no response. Many respondents noted that elements of the police and armed forces and some government officials are involved in criminal activities and that they should be purged so that the GPF and the government can more effectively combat crime. People say the government must do more to crack down on corruption.
The findings on other issues of the poll will be released subsequently.
Racial Breakdown of People Polled
Race Number Percentage
Indian 441 45
African 294 30
Mixed 147 15
Amerindian 88 9
Others 10 1
Total 980 100
What do you think is the most important problem facing the country?
Problem %
Crime/Insecurity 47
Corruption 17
Cost of living 15
Bad governance 5
Others 10
No Answer 6
Do you approve of the performance of the government?
Yes No Balanced Not Sure
36 35 16 13
Do you approve of the performance of President Jagdeo?
Yes No Not Sure
59 31 10
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
