PRIME Minister and FijiFirst party leader Voreqe Bainimarama continues to be the people’s favourite, coming out yet again at the top of a national poll conducted a few days ago.
Mr Bainimarama scored an approval rating of 78 per cent as the Prime Minister of Fiji; out of which 42 per cent said he was doing “a very good job” and 35 per cent suggested he was doing “a good job”.
Four per cent disapproved his performance as the PM – 2 per cent said Mr Bainimarama was “not doing a very good job” and the other 2 per cent said he was “doing a poor job”.
This year’s poll was conducted from February 4-7 by internationally-accredited world standard market researcher, Tebbutt Research, from a random national sample of 1001 adults 18 years and over.
Those interviewed were asked the question: Overall, how good a job do you think Voreqe Bainimarama / Ro Teimumu Kepa / Professor Biman Prasad / Sitiveni Rabuka is doing as Prime Minister / Opposition Leader / NFP Leader / SODELPA Leader (very good job / good job / average job / not a very good job / poor job)?
In 2014, months before the September General Election, a similar Tebbutt-Times poll conducted then revealed 66 per cent showed overwhelming support for Mr Bainimarama as the preferred prime minister.
In July 2016, the same poll conducted from a random national sample of 1004 adults 18 years and over, grew even further to 82 per cent from the Fijian public.
As Mr Bainimarama enters his third year in office, his approval rating has taken a slight drop from 82 per cent to 78 per cent.
But Mr Bainimarama recorded an extremely high approval rating of 91 per cent in the Northern Division, compared with the Central and Western divisions that recorded approval ratings of 73 per cent and 78 per cent, respectively.
One per cent of people surveyed refused to answer the question and 4 per cent were unsure.
Otherwise, the remainder rated Mr Bainimarama’s performance as “average”.
Opposition Leader Ro Teimumu Kepa tallied a 44 per cent approval rating in the latest polls, a drop from the 51 per cent approval rating recorded in July 2016. Prior to the 2014 elections Ro Teimumu had an eight per cent approval rating.
In the current polls, 10 per cent of respondents disapprove of her performance as the Opposition Leader.
Seven per cent of those disapproving said she was “not doing a very good job” and 3 per cent said she was doing “a poor job”.
For those approving of her performance, 12 per cent said she was doing “a very good job”, and 32 per cent said she was doing “a good job”.
Seven per cent of those disapproving said she was “not doing a very good job” and 3 per cent said she was doing “a poor job”.
Two per cent of those surveyed refused to answer the question, a significant 17 per cent were unsure, and 29 per cent rated her performance as “average”.
The approval for ratings for Professor Prasad as NFP leader stood at 36 per cent, consisting of 6 per cent who regarded his performance as “very good” and 30 per cent reporting “a good job”.
His disapproval ratings of 9 per cent comes from 7 per cent saying his performance is “not very good” and 2 per cent saying it is “poor”.
Three per cent of those surveyed refused to answer the question, and 21 per cent were unsure; and one in three says he is doing an “average” job.
In the role of SODELPA leader, Sitiveni Rabuka has a 34 per cent approval rating comprising 14 per cent “very good job” and 20 per cent “good job”. This is down from the approval rating of 36 per cent he recorded in July 2016.
His disapproval rating of 12 per comprises 8 per cent saying his performance is “not very good” and 4 per cent describing it as “poor”. Three per cent refused to answer, 27 per cent were unsure, and a quarter believes he is doing an “average” job.
