19 April 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka: According to the latest ‘Democracy in Post War Sri Lanka’ survey conducted by Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lankans have a low level of confidence in the Government’s commitment towards eradicating corruption in the country. While 40.8% are of the opinion that the Government is not committed towards eradicating corruption in the country, 34.5% say that the Government is committed. The decrease in the level of confidence is seen when compared to October 2015 data, where 49.6% of Sri Lankans were of the opinion that the Government is committed towards eradicating corruption in the country.
On the issue of cost of living, almost 30% of Sri Lankans indicate that they are satisfied with the Government’s performance in addressing the cost of living in the country, while 51.2% indicate that they are dissatisfied.
While 48.8% of Sri Lankans agree that the National Anthem should be sung in both Sinhala and Tamil languages, 41.3% of Sri Lankans disagree.
42.2% of Sri Lankans are of the opinion that there should be a mechanism to look into what happened during the final stages of the war, while 44.2% are of the opinion that there shouldn’t be such a mechanism. Among those who indicate that there should be a credible mechanism, 47.3% are of the opinion that it should be an exclusively domestic one, whilst only 9.2% of Sri Lankans are of the opinion that it should be an exclusively international one.
While 72.6% of Sri Lankans agree that female representation in Parliament, Provincial Councils, and Local Government Authorities is insufficient, 10.1% disagree with the same. 52% of Sri Lankans are of the opinion that men are both qualified and capable of winning an election in comparison to women, while 23.7% disagree with the same. Furthermore, 51.4% of Sri Lankans are also of the opinion that once elected, women have less decision making power than their male counterparts.
Nearly 50% of Sri Lankans state that the Constitution should determine the number of Ministers and that there should be no room to increase the number of Ministers in Parliament.
A majority (74.4%) of Sri Lankans agree that the Clergy (religious priests/ monks) if found guilty of unethical/ illegal behaviour or misconduct, must be taken into custody and dealt with under the rule of law.
‘Democracy in post-war Sri Lanka’ sought to record public perspectives on democracy in Sri Lanka today and the findings are presented under four key sections – Economy and Development, Trust in Institutions, Perceptions on politics and Transitional justice. The first wave was conducted in 2011, the second wave in 2013, the third in 2014, the fourth in March 2015 and the fifth in October 2015.
Conducted in the 25 districts of the country, this survey captured the opinion of 2102 Sri Lankans from the four main ethnic groups. The selection of respondents was random across the country except in a few areas in the Northern Province where access was difficult. Fieldwork was conducted from February 18th to March 03rd 2016.
Download the report in full here.
###
Social Indicator (SI) is the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and was established in September 1999, filling a longstanding vacuum for a permanent, professional and independent polling facility in Sri Lanka on social and political issues. Driven by the strong belief that polling is an instrument that empowers democracy, SI has been conducting polls on a large range of socio-economic and political issues since its inception.
Please contact Iromi Perera at [email protected] for further information.