LAHORE: Despite trenchant criticism from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), the Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) is currently the most popular party in the country, a survey has shown.
The survey carried out by the International Republican Institute (IRI) posed the question that if the elections for the National Assembly were to be held next week, who were the respondents most likely to vote for.
The results revealed a 3.7 percent increment in PML-N’s popularity and a shocking 22.6 per cent decline in PTI’s vote bank.
Conducted between July and August 2012 from a pool of 6,001 respondents, the survey compared results from an earlier survey carried out in February 2012.
According to the IRI survey, 28 per cent of the respondents agreed to vote for PML-N, closely followed by PTI at 24 percent. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) took the third spot with 14 percent votes whereas Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) polled three percent.
When asked about electing representatives in the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly, 43 percent respondents from Punjab agreed to vote for PML-N. In spite of facing severe criticism with respect to its governance from rival parties such as PPP and PTI, the political party maintained its top position.
Furthermore, according to the survey, PTI lost 18.2 percent of its vote bank, with 27 percent of the respondents agreeing to vote for the party in July-August compared to an earlier 33 percent.
A 22.2 percent slash in PPP’s popularity was witnessed in the province, and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) was chosen by two per cent of the respondents.
In Sindh, the PPP took the top spot, however, according to the survey, the party has lost its popularity in the province by 7.1 percent.
The survey demonstrated an upsurge in MQM’s popularity, with a 22.s percent increase in the party’s vote bank.
PTI took second place but witnessed a sharp decline of 13.3 percent in its vote bank. No change was seen in PML-N and PML-Q’s popularity in Sindh.
A downward trend in political parties’ popularity was witnessed in K-P. Even though PTI remained the most preferred party with 30 percent of the respondents agreeing to vote for it, it lost its vote bank by 38.8 percent.
Similarly, according to the survey, the Awami National Party (ANP) lost 92.3 percent of its vote bank with only one per cent of the respondents agreeing to vote for them in the current survey as compared to 13 percent in Febuary 2012.
The PPP’s popularity also showed a sharp decline by 75 per cent as only two per cent of the respondents agreed to vote for the party.
There was no change in respondents’ preference for PML-N and nine per cent of the respondents agreed to vote for the party.
There was a downward trend witnessed in Balochistan as well. PTI took the top slot with 26 percent of the respondents agreeing to vote for it.
However, the party lost 38.8 percent of its vote bank with an earlier figure of 35 percent of the respondents favouring the party.
The PML-N was preferred by only eight per cent of the respondents.
According to the survey 91 per cent of the people believed that Pakistan was heading in the wrong direction. Respondents termed electricity and inflation to be the two most important issues being faced by Pakistan.
Internews
