Confidence in Government Plummets in Sri Lanka

Protesters stormed the prime minister’s office in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding both he and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa step aside. The president had fled the country earlier in the day and named Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the honorary leader in his absence.

As data from Verité Research shows, while sentiments in Sri Lanka have been extremely low for months, they plummeted even further in recent weeks. Where 10 percent of Sri Lankans said they approved of the way their government was functioning in January, this fell to 3 percent in June. The ‘Gallup’ style poll found that satisfaction with the general direction the country is headed also saw a decline, falling by 4 percentage points between the two surveys, from 6 percent down to just 2 percent.

Confidence in the economy also fell. Based on an index running from -100 to +100, the numbers -83 and -96 reflect how an overwhelming majority consider the economic conditions to be poor and getting worse. Verité Research explains that of those polled, only 1.8 percent of people rated the economy as “good” and 1.3 percent rated it as “getting better” in the most recent survey wave. No one rated the economic condition as “excellent”, according to the source.

Months of largely peaceful anti-government protests have taken place on the South Asian island, following an economic downturn that saw fuel and food shortages, power outages and soaring inflation rates. Demonstrators accuse the president of corruption and mismanagement, which they say has led the country to economic collapse. While he has reportedly agreed to step down, putting an end to his family’s two-decades long rule, he has not yet handed in an official letter of resignation, as reported by CNN. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is also reported to have said he would step aside once a new government has been chosen, although he has not repeated that claim since becoming acting president.