Bangladesh in right direction
Some 73 percent of Bangladeshis feel the country is going in the right direction, according to a survey of US-based International Republican Institute (IRI).
This is a nine percentage point increase since November 2015 and a 38 point increase over the last two years, says the IRI, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organisation committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide.
According to the poll released on Wednesday, 83 percent of the respondents said the security situation in Bangladesh is very good or somewhat good, while 77 percent said they felt the country is politically stable.
The respondents were optimistic about the country's future. Of them, 72 percent believe their personal economic condition will improve in the coming year, and 65 percent believe the country is becoming more stable politically.
“Still, Bangladeshis list the economy and security as their country's biggest problems,” says the survey carried out by Nielsen-Bangladesh between February 4 and 21.
“Anxiety about security in particular has increased eight percentage points since November 2015 and, at 21 percent, is now tied with the economy as the most important problem facing Bangladesh.”
The percentage of respondents, who listed corruption among the country's most serious problems, dropped from 18 to nine percent since November 2015.
The top example of corruption in Bangladesh -- cited by 45 percent of the respondents -- was paying bribes to secure jobs, mentions the survey.
It says 53 percent of the respondents cited political extremism as a very big problem, while 44 percent mentioned religious extremism.
Asked generally about the main cause of extremism, “political difference” was the most common response with 38 percent of the respondents vouching for it, according to the survey.
Religious extremism was mentioned by only six percent of the respondents as the reason while 47 percent didn't give any response.
“It reveals only one percent of the respondents said the use of violence was justified while 93 percent said violence is never justified,” it adds.
The sample was stratified by the eight administrative divisions, by district and by urban and rural locations. The sample consisted of 2,550 respondents (response rate: 43 percent) aged 18 and above, and was representative of voting-age adults nationally.
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