The confounding Tebbutt Poll
An overall approval rating of 78% for Prime Minister Bainimarama in a poll conducted last week by Tebbutt, contrasts sharply with recent snap polls conducted by the social media which show the FF Party doing pretty badly.
In one such poll, out of 800 respondents, 62% believed SODELPA would win the next elections and just 37% thought FF would win.
Social media and radio talk-back show feedbacks from the grassroots show growing disillusionment with the FF government. Its utter failure to provide quick and effective rehabilitation relief to victims of Cyclone Winston despite all the promises, its ineffective approach to problems facing the sugar industry and cane farmers in particular, the escalating cost of living and government’s refusal to give workers a just and living wage in line with inflation- have all made it very unpopular with the people.
One wonders how much significance should be given to a national poll based on just 1001 people conducted through the telephone. In Fiji, there is a remarkable difference in opinion between people: in the rural and urban areas, the educated and elite vs the poor and ordinary worker etc etc. The Fiji Times report on the results of the poll does not indicate what percentage of those polled were from the rural sector or different social classes.
Certainly, it is difficult to believe that a prime minister who spends three-quarters of his time trotting the globe overseas and the rest cutting ribbons and distributing hand outs, can get a 78% rating as doing a good job.
To put things in the proper perspective: the Tebbutt-Times poll on the popularity ratings of our politicians can be likened to making some sense out of nonsense, if you read things in the reverse. Source: FLP website
An overall approval rating of 78% for Prime Minister Bainimarama in a poll conducted last week by Tebbutt, contrasts sharply with recent snap polls conducted by the social media which show the FF Party doing pretty badly.
In one such poll, out of 800 respondents, 62% believed SODELPA would win the next elections and just 37% thought FF would win.
Social media and radio talk-back show feedbacks from the grassroots show growing disillusionment with the FF government. Its utter failure to provide quick and effective rehabilitation relief to victims of Cyclone Winston despite all the promises, its ineffective approach to problems facing the sugar industry and cane farmers in particular, the escalating cost of living and government’s refusal to give workers a just and living wage in line with inflation- have all made it very unpopular with the people.
One wonders how much significance should be given to a national poll based on just 1001 people conducted through the telephone. In Fiji, there is a remarkable difference in opinion between people: in the rural and urban areas, the educated and elite vs the poor and ordinary worker etc etc. The Fiji Times report on the results of the poll does not indicate what percentage of those polled were from the rural sector or different social classes.
Certainly, it is difficult to believe that a prime minister who spends three-quarters of his time trotting the globe overseas and the rest cutting ribbons and distributing hand outs, can get a 78% rating as doing a good job.
To put things in the proper perspective: the Tebbutt-Times poll on the popularity ratings of our politicians can be likened to making some sense out of nonsense, if you read things in the reverse. Source: FLP website
