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Zardari as Unpopular as Musharraf - Gallop Survey
January 14, 2009 . 72 Comments
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Largely considered untested when elected, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has been engulfed by crisis since he took office a few months ago. A Gallup Poll of Pakistan in October, before the latest crisis with India, revealed the new leader had failed, as of that point, to earn more support than his predecessor: Zardari’s 19% job approval rating was on par with the 17% approval that Pakistanis gave an unpopular President Pervez Musharraf in June.

Link to Gallop Survey detailsISLAMABAD: A survey released by Gallup Pakistan on Tuesday showed that 88 percent of Pakistanis supported the coalition of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for the formation of the new government.

The nationwide poll surveyed 1,416 respondents from rural and urban areas, representing a cross-section of various age, income, and socio-economic groups. The survey, conducted on March 9 and 10, is said to have an error margin of approximately 3-5 percent at 95 percent confidence level.

The poll, conducted a week ahead of the first NA session, revealed that the PPP enjoys a high level of public support for its decision to ally with its former arch rival, the PML-N.

“In comparison, the support for an alliance with the PML-Quaid (PML-Q), the party enjoying favour with President Pervez Musharraf in the last tenure, is rather low,” the survey said.

The poll showed that 94 percent of PPP supporters, 98 percent of PML-N supporters, 74 percent of PML-Q supporters, and 95 percent of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) supporters favoured the alliance.

27 percent of MQM voters supported the PPP-PMLN alliance, they also maintained a high level of support for President Pervez Musharraf, who is unpopular with PPP and PML-N voters.

Sindh’s problem: “There is a remarkably high support for national reconciliation in the country with the possible exception of conflicting views between PPP and MQM voters,” the survey report said.

“Both are unwilling to give much space to each other. The MQM continues to maintain high levels of support for Pervez Musharraf, who enjoys little favour with PPP voters. By the same count 82 percent of PPP voters are opposed to forming an alliance in the assemblies with the MQM, even though 87 percent of MQM voters express keenness for it,” the report added.

The survey said the difference between the two parties would be a “thorny political problem” in Sindh, where the MQM dominated the urban segment of the provincial assembly, and the PPP reflected the rural population.