A nationwide Bangla Tribune opinion poll conducted by interviewing a total of 4,950 people from across the country on the completion of two years of the current Awami League-led government has found opinion to be split roughly down the middle on the government’s performance and prospects.
In response to the question whether Bangladesh is heading in the right direction, an equal 48.6% of the respondents said yes and no, with 2.8% offering no opinion.
Of those interviewed, nearly 36% were women, among whom, however, the gap between yes and no was wider.
Read More
Most feel worse off than two years ago
Terrorism a big threat, but not a top priority
Most people want war crimes trials to continue, Jamaat banned
Slightly more than half of the women surveyed said the country was heading in the right direction, while some 46.5% said that it was heading in the wrong direction.
With a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 2%, the survey was conducted across the 64 districts in the country from January 17-25.
Out of the 4,950 interviews, 2,100 were picked from seven of eight divisional headquarter cities (excluding Mymensingh), or 300 each. The remaining samples were picked from the district areas in the remaining 57 districts, with 50 respondents from each district surveyed.
The interviews were conducted at crowded public places; respondents were selected randomly and the surveyors maintained a 10-minute interval between interviews done with a fixed questionnaire.
At the divisional city level, however, more respondents thought that the country was heading in the wrong direction.
A little over 44% of respondents in the divisional cities said that the country was on the right track while more than 52.6% thought the opposite.
In another question, asked who they would vote for if an election were held right now, 28% plumped for AL versus 23% for BNP. Significantly, however, 42% refused to reveal their voting preference.
If we look at respondents in the divisional cities only, voting preference for AL and BNP was equal at 25% each, with 43% declining to respond.
According to an opinion poll conducted by the Dhaka Tribune one year ago on the completion of the current government’s first year in office, the ruling party would have got 41% votes and BNP 34% if an election were to be held at that time.
In that poll, the ruling party was also far more popular compared to the BNP among the urban voters than among rural voters.
