Bangladeshis are increasingly optimistic about the country’s economic prospects but their key concern is corruption which is not being properly addressed by the government, according to an IRI opinion survey.
The survey, released on Wednesday, said the ruling Awami League gained support among a majority of the respondents although opinions over timing of the next general elections were highly divided.
The US-based International Republican Institute (IRI) conducted the survey among 2,550 voting aged adults in May-June.
It found that 62 per cent of them indicated they believed the country was headed in the right direction. The percentage of optimists in the previous IRI survey was 56.
Now, 72 per cent rated overall economic conditions positively, 68 per cent felt security conditions were good and 64 per cent were positive regarding political stability, added the survey.
With the decline in electoral violence and hartals, the survey pointed out, 24 per cent of Bangladeshis cited corruption as the most important problem compared to political instability (16 per cent) and security (15 percent) – the two other serious problems facing the country,
The survey, which has a margin of error of plus-minus two per cent, also revealed that 47 per cent of respondents did not “see the government as fully engaged in or capable of fighting corruption.”
However, the survey showed, in the 18 months after parliamentary elections on 5 January 2014, support for the AL government and prime minister Sheikh Hasina reached 66 and 67 per cent respectively.
Respondents were said to have been almost equally divided when asked about when they would like the next national elections to be held.
Forty-three per cent indicated a desire for new elections to be held immediately while 40 per cent wanted the current parliament to fulfil its term, said the survey report.
In IRI’s previous survey conducted in September 2014, 40 per cent said they wanted immediate elections and 45 per cent wanted to see continuation of the current parliament.
Dwelling on the issue of corruption, 11 per cent of respondents said they had paid a bribe; more than half of them said they had paid at least Tk 5,000 (approximately $65).
One-third of those who acknowledged making payments had paid the police or courts to obtain justice, 29 per cent had done so for a license or permit and 25 per cent had paid for job consideration, said the IRI survey.
Source: Prothom Alo
