Sri Lankans continue to have deeply unfavourable views of most politicians a year after the economic and political collapse in early 2022, and despite progress in recent months in stabilising the economy and in negotiations with the IMF, a survey by the Institute for Health Policy has found.
The survey conducted between Sept. 2022 and Mar. 2023 found that almost all politicians tracked by SLOTS had negative favourability ratings, and most had ratings below -30, which make most Sri Lankan politicians as or more unpopular than French President Macron today.
The most popular politician tracked by SLOTS is Dr Sudarshini Fernandopulle, former State Minister for COVID-19. She had an average net favourability rating of +7, but this was still substantially down from late 2021 when it was typically +50 – +70. The only other politicians who had positive or neutral net favourability ratings, were also professionals and from both the government and opposition: Professor Channa Jayasumuna (+1), Harini Amarasuriya (-8), and Ali Sabry (-10).
The most unpopular politicians tracked were from the Rajapaksa family, all of whom had net favourability ratings less than -50, with Basil Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa being the most unpopular with ratings of -73 and -65.
Other politicians had ratings of -10 to -50, with government politicians generally doing worse than opposition ones, with the exceptions of Pavithra Wanniarachchi (-18) and Kanchana Wijesekera (-32), although both had significantly negative ratings.
Dr Rannan-Eliya, Executive Director of IHP and lead investigator, commented that “These results suggest that the whole political class is discredited. However, it is notable that the politicians with better ratings tended to be professionals or politicians with a reputation of speaking hard truths to the public—Dr Sudarshini in the case of COVID-19, or Ali Sabry about the economic crisis and the need for painful measures. I think that most politicians don’t want to say difficult things because they think it would make them unpopular, but the public seems to appreciate politicians who try to be honest, even if it means admitting difficult things.”