Survey reveals Wickremesinghe favoured by all communities to be PM

A pre-election poll conducted by a non-partisan independent organisation in Sri Lanka has found that the current Prime Minister and the leader of the United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremesinghe, has more support from all communities in the country over his would be contender Mahinda Rajapaksa to become the Prime Minister.

Nationally, 39.8% believed Ranil Wickremesinghe was best suited to be Prime Minister of Sri Lanka as opposed to the 27.5% who favoured Rajapaksa.

Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, conducted an island-wide pre-election opinion poll with the objective of identifying Sri Lankan voter perceptions and attitudes on key topics being discussed in the lead-up to the election and thereby contribute to the current political discourse.

When asked about who they thought was best suited to be Prime Minister, the majority of those polled from the Tamil (62.3%), Up Country Tamil (71.1%) and Muslim (62.3%) communities chose Wickremesinghe, with less than 2% from each community saying that it should be Rajapaksa. Opinion in the Sinhala community is divided, with 36% saying that it should Mahinda Rajapaksa and 31.9% saying Wickremesinghe.

From a provincial perspective, most Sri Lankans from the Western, Central, Northern, Eastern, North Western, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces support Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister while those in the Southern and North Central provinces support Rajapaksa.

Sri Lankans are divided on the question about whether former Mahinda Rajapaksa should be in the upcoming General Elections. Forty percent of Sri Lankans say that the former President should contest while 42% say that he should not.

Almost 50% from the Sinhala community say that he should contest while only 14.8% from the Tamil, 8.4% from the Up Country Tamil and 8.2% from the Muslim communities state the same.

The key issues that Sri Lankans believe the next Parliament should address are employment and employment opportunities for youth, reduction in the cost of living, accelerating the development of the country and improving the education system.

The three most important characteristics that Sri Lankans look for in a candidate are what that candidate has done for the country (19.4%), education (17.5%) and whether they are incorrupt (15.6%).

For almost 50% of Sri Lankans it is extremely important that the candidates they plan on voting for have declared their assets while 18.5% say that it is somewhat important for them.

For an overwhelming majority of Sri Lankans (86.4%), the media is a source of information during election time. When asked what their primary source of news was during election time, 80.9% of Sri Lankans said television, 7.1% said radio and 5.9% said newspapers.

Some 59% of Sri Lankans say that the information they get from the media influences how they vote, while 29.6% say that it does not.

Only 4 % of Sri Lankans believe that the 2015 General Election will not be free and fair and 66.9% believe that it will be.

Conducted in the country’s 25 districts, this opinion poll captured the opinion of 1,986 Sri Lankans from the four main ethnic groups. Fieldwork was conducted from the 22-29 July 2015.