Prayut gets tick of approval in national poll

More than three quarters of respondents were pleased about the government’s tackling of graft over the past two years, the highest figure, while the economy and bread-and-butter issues remain the areas people most want improved.

The opinion poll was conducted on 1,293 people from Monday till Saturday. 

It found that 26.06 per cent and 46.09 per cent of the surveyed people were very confident and fairly confident in PM Prayut respectively. They said that the PM had accomplished many things in the past two years and was capable of dealing with immediate problems, besides being a good, hard-working, and sincere person.

Some 19 per cent and 8 per cent said they were not very confident and not confident at all in the PM respectively because they thought he had a problem controlling himself and he came to power through a power seizure which made scrutiny of his government impossible.

The survey also revealed the five most satisfying works undertaken by the Prayut administration. 

More than 75 per cent said they were impressed with the corruption fighting both in the private and public sector.

Some 71 per cent were satisfied with the forest reclamation measures as well as actions taken against the preserved-forest encroachers. 

Peacekeeping, social order, and drug crackdowns came third with 70.62 per cent of the respondents voicing satisfaction with those measures. 

Efforts against human trafficking which lifted Thailand from Tier 3 to Tier 2 in US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report this year received a 65.51 per cent satisfaction rating.

The fifth most satisfying measure was the reduction in petrol and energy prices (63.36 per cent).

As for what needs improvement the most, 82.60 per cent said the economy and 78.65 said bread-and-butter, cost of living, and quality of life issues.

The deep South conflict was third on the list with some 73 per cent saying the government should speed up its work to deal with the issue. The constitution and its organic laws writing and law amendments came forth (67.05 per cent).

The fifth issue deemed in need of improvement the most is the agricultural sector including the fall in agricultural product prices. 

The survey also found 60.94 per cent of respondents are confident with the overall Cabinet because it members did not fight one another like in the past. But almost 40 per cent of the respondents said they were not confident in the Cabinet because military officers may not know what they were doing when in the administration, resulting in not many accomplishments.

As for the government’s overall performance, 66.66 per cent said they were confident in the administration, reasoning that it had been decisive and able to tackle problems quickly and followed the roadmap as planned.