Democracy is the choice
The great majority of Bangladeshis have faith in democracy despite its flaws, says a survey by International Republican Institute.
A whopping 81 percent of the respondents agree that despite having problems, democracy is better than other forms of government. Of them, 53 percent strongly and 28 percent somewhat agree with it.
Eighty three percent -- 41 percent of them strongly and 42 percent somewhat -- believe that democracies are good at maintaining law and order, says the survey released yesterday.
Responding to another question, however, 68 percent agree that democracies have too much squabbling and another 45 percent think that the economic system runs badly in a democracy.
Conducted by Nielsen-Bangladesh, the survey between May 23 and June 10 this year interviewed 2,550 respondents aged 18 and above. It was supervised by Rob Varsalone of Global Strategic Partners and IRI, an international organisation that helps build stronger democracies.
The respondents' preference for democracy also becomes obvious from their choice between a democratic system of government and a prosperous economy.
Sixty eight percent, up from last year's 65 percent, consider democracy definitely more important while only 27 percent, down from last year's 30 percent, choose a prosperous economy.
The survey also shows that the respondents' approval rating is very high for the army, the media, the civil society and the Rapid Action Battalion. Of them, army has 86 percent, media 83 percent, civil society 80 percent and Rab 76 percent approval for their jobs.
The survey results are bleak for politics with the majority of people disapproving of the current jobs done by the political parties, police and parliament.
Only 21 percent people approve of the parliament's job while a whopping 67 percent disapprove.
The job of police is approved by 43 percent while it is disapproved by 53 percent. The job of the political parties is approved and disapproved by an equal 46 percent people.
In matters of voting, a total of 88 percent -- 67 percent strongly and 21 percent somewhat -- agree that election gives them a chance to influence decision-making in the country. However, it was 94 percent in the last survey in September 2014.
About an election time caretaker government system, 67 percent think it should be restored before holding the next parliamentary election.
According to the survey, 43 percent respondents like to see the next general election to be held as soon as possible while 40 percent think the current parliament should complete its tenure.
Corruption has been identified as the most persistent problem by respondents in the survey.
With the decline of electoral violence and strikes, corruption has been cited by 24 percent as the biggest problem facing the country, political instability by 16 percent as the second biggest and security by 15 percent as the third biggest problem.
The IRI in a release also says the survey has found that despite a partisan divide on electoral issues, the ruling Awami League has gained support among the respondents over the last year. The poll results also indicate a positive public feeling about the country's economic futures.
"In the 18 months following Bangladesh's parliamentary elections on January 5, 2014, support for the ruling government and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached 66 and 67 percent respectively," said IRI release.
"Bangladeshis were increasingly optimistic about the prospects for the country, with 62 percent of respondents indicating they believed the country was headed in the right direction (up from 56 percent in the September 2014 IRI survey," said IRI.
According to the survey findings, the AL enjoys more popularity than the other parties with 60 percent respondents liking and 29 percent disliking it.
Forty two percent like the BNP while 46 percent dislike it.
The Ershad-led Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami both had 25 percent liking and 60 percent disliking them.
In a leadership comparison between the two archrivals, the AL fared much better than the BNP.
The respondents gave the AL more points than the BNP on issues like strong leadership to youth leaders, support to women, good policies, democratic reforms, fight against corruption and pro-poor policies. In some cases, the AL got twice as much support as the BNP.
Similarly, the respondents prefer the AL to BNP for improving education, infrastructure, healthcare, security, economy, ending ethnic conflict and maintaining political stability.
AL-BNP REACTIONS
Contacted, AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif lauded the survey findings about the comparison between the AL and the BNP.
About the choice between democracy and prosperity, he said that only democracy without prosperity has no meaning.
“We don't want that sort of democracy if it means freedom of carrying out violence and vandalism as was done by the BNP and Jamaat. Democracy means prosperity and that is what the present government is doing for the welfare of the people,” he added.
About the survey result on holding election, he said welfare of the people should be the aim of holding any election.
BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman said the survey has reflected in general the opinion of the people.
But in many cases, Mahbub said the findings on the BNP have not been rightly and fully reflected.
About the survey findings on the caretaker government system, former caretaker government adviser Hafizuddin Khan said election in our country cannot be free and fair without the caretaker system.
As for decreasing support for the caretaker government system, he said the government's aggressive propaganda was responsible for this.
About the poor performance of BNP in terms of different social and development indications, he said both the AL and the BNP are more or less the opposite sides of the same coin.
METHODOLOGY
Data was collected using a multi-stage, stratified probability sample and through in-person, in-home interviews. The sample was stratified by the seven administrative divisions, by district and by urban and rural locations, the IRI website said.
Conducted in cooperation with international research firm Global Strategic Partners, the nationally representative sample was drawn from all 64 districts in the seven divisions of Bangladesh.
The margin of error for the aggregate sample does not exceed plus or minus two percent at the midrange with a confidence level of 95 percent, said the IRI.
IRI has conducted surveys in Bangladesh since 2008 to inform elections and civil society stakeholders on key electoral issues, it added.
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