Sajith’s favourability rating improves; AKD and RW lag

The public had a negative opinion of all leading Presidential candidates, but A.K. Dissanayake had the least negative rating.

In IHP SLOTS polling for August 2024, the net favourability rating of SJB leader Sajith Premadasa improved to -32 (+10 points compared to July). Meanwhile, NPP/JVP leader A.K. Dissanayake and President Ranil Wickremesinghe saw their favourability ratings drop to -21 (-16 points) and -33 (-4 points) respectively. The favourability rating of Namal Rajapaksa, the SLPP Presidential Election candidate, was -89 in August.

Favourability estimates for each month are based on 100–500 interviews conducted during that month and a few weeks before and after, ensuring a minimum set of responses for key party leaders. The August 2024 estimates are based on 517 interviews for Sajith Premadasa, 491 for A.K. Dissanayake, 530 for Ranil Wickremesinghe, 639 for Namal Rajapaksa, and 384 for Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

IHP said it has observed that some members of the public may misunderstand media reporting of these numbers. A negative score, i.e., a net favourability rating of less than zero, indicates that the individual or institution is unpopular. Only positive scores, i.e., when net favourability exceeds zero, indicate that the individual or institution is popular on average.

IHP is solely responsible for commissioning and designing the survey, and it takes full responsibility for it. IHP is an independent, non-partisan research institution based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The SLOTS lead investigator is Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya of IHP, who was trained in public opinion polling at Harvard University, and who has conducted many opinion surveys over three decades, both in and outside Sri Lanka.

SLOTS surveys a national sample of adults (ages 18 and over) reached by random digit dialling of mobile numbers, and others coming from a national panel of respondents who were previously recruited through a field survey that employed stratified probability sampling to recruit individuals from all districts. SLOTS tracks favourability by asking respondents if they have a favourable or unfavourable opinion of a public figure or institution. Net favourability is the average of the positive (+100) and negative (-100) responses. All estimates are weighted to match the national population with respect to age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sector, province, and past voting in the 2019 and 2020 elections. Monthly estimates are based on samples of 100+ interviews pooled from interviews in each month and from weeks before and afterwards. As this update uses a more recent data set than the previous update, there are likely to be small changes in estimates of favourability ratings for previous months.

IHP conducts the SLOTS survey to track changes in health and social conditions, and public opinion in the country. IHP is solely responsible for conceiving, commissioning and designing the survey, and it takes full responsibility for it. Interviews are done daily by phone by IHP employees, with respondents recruited by a national field survey or by randomly dialling phone numbers. SLOTS fieldwork since 2021 has been supported by a range of funders, who play no role in question design, data analysis, or reporting. Past funders have included the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, Asia Foundation, European Commission, UK National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Foundation Open Society Institute, and others. Current fieldwork is supported by funding from the Velux Stiftung, New York University Abu Dhabi, and the IHP Public Interest Research Fund. The survey findings do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of past and present funders. Interested parties can contact IHP for more detailed data and results.