Public approval of Bangladesh’s new government stands at 55%, but support drops markedly among people struggling financially, according to the latest International Republican Institute (IRI) survey.
The findings suggest that household economic conditions are emerging as an important dividing line in how Bangladeshis assess the government’s performance.
Overall, 26% of respondents said the new government was doing a “very good” job and another 29% rated its performance “somewhat good”, giving it a combined positive rating of 55%.
By contrast, 15% described its performance as somewhat bad and 12% as very bad.
Survey: Drug concern nearly triples, emerges as Bangladesh’s No 2 problemApproval, however, varies substantially depending on respondents’ financial circumstances.
Among those who described themselves as “living comfortably”, 68% rated the government positively, 42% saying it was doing a very good job and 26% somewhat good.
That falls to 57% among those who said they were “getting by” and 49% among respondents who said they were “finding it difficult”.
Among those finding their financial situation “very difficult”, positive assessments stand at around 47%.
The divide is significant because economic pressure remains widespread.
The survey’s demographic breakdown shows 12% of respondents describing their financial situation as very difficult and another 30% as difficult, meaning more than four in 10 respondents fall into the two financially strained categories.
Economic concerns also feature prominently elsewhere in the survey.
Among Bangladeshis who believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, rising commodity prices are the single most frequently cited explanation, followed by deterioration in law and order and increasing corruption.
The government-performance question was administered through a secret ballot, meaning respondents entered their answers on a tablet without interviewers seeing their responses.
IRI surveyed 5,000 adults nationwide between May 16 and June 24.
