Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's pop­u­lar­i­ty re­mains in­tact but cit­i­zens are dis­en­chant­ed with the Gov­ern­ment's per­for­mance since as­sum­ing of­fice more than 20-months ago. This is the lat­est find­ing of a Nac­ta poll con­duct­ed by Vish­nu Bis­ram. A to­tal of 350 re­spon­dents were in­ter­viewed on the per­for­mance of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship since the po­lit­i­cal par­ty emerged vic­to­ri­ous at the polls in 2010.

Ac­cord­ing to the find­ings, peo­ple are be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly dis­en­chant­ed with the Gov­ern­ment, with on­ly 37 per cent of re­spon­dents ex­press­ing sat­is­fac­tion with its per­for­mance. How­ev­er, the Prime Min­is­ter's rat­ing got a boost of 57 per cent from her trips to In­dia and Aus­tralia with gov­ern­ment sup­port­ers ral­ly­ing strong­ly be­hind her on the In­dia ho­n­our. Al­most every Gov­ern­ment sup­port­er, the poll re­vealed, was pleased with Per­sad-Bisses­sar vis­it­ing her an­ces­tral roots while PNM sup­port­ers felt she should al­so vis­it Africa to ex­pand re­la­tions. Asked if they thought the PM's trip to In­dia will re­dound to ben­e­fits for T&T, 56 per cent said yes, while 32 per cent dis­agreed.

'PNM not a vi­able al­ter­na­tive'

And, while Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley has be­gun to re­gain sup­port from cit­i­zens, re­spon­dents said they do not see the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) as a vi­able al­ter­na­tive for gov­er­nance. Row­ley's rat­ing has shot up to 42 per cent for his queries on Gov­ern­ment's un­der­tak­ings, but PNM sup­port­ers are con­cerned about what they see as a di­vi­sion with­in their par­ty and its lead­er­ship. Re­spon­dents said there was need for Row­ley to be­come more ef­fec­tive in hold­ing the Gov­ern­ment ac­count­able for their ac­tions.

Mean­while, the Gov­ern­ment came in for heavy crit­i­cism over the re­cent silk con­tro­ver­sy as the ma­jor­i­ty of re­spon­dents de­scribed the ap­point­ments as "po­lit­i­cal­ly mo­ti­vat­ed" and sup­port­ed the call for an in­de­pen­dent body to be set up. The find­ings al­so re­vealed deep an­guish over the re­cent spike in crime which re­mains the main con­cern of al­most every­one. Re­spon­dents al­so ex­pressed con­cern over the high cost of liv­ing, stag­nant econ­o­my and in­fra­struc­ture prob­lems. De­spite the split in his min­istry, Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Jack Warn­er con­tin­ues to be viewed as the most pro­duc­tive min­is­ter. Ty­ing for sec­ond spot is Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh.