Lankans unfavourable of all political party leaders

• SLOTS polling shows public maintains unfavourable and worsening views of all, although President Wickremesinghe had the least negative ratings in November

The latest Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) polling shows that the public continue to have deeply unfavourable views of all major political party leaders. 

UNP Leader President Ranil Wickremasinghe has the least negative favourability ratings, although by a small margin. The past three months have seen a fresh decline in favourability for most, giving back some modest gains since August. 

In November, President Wickremesinghe was viewed unfavourably by a net 46% of Sri Lankans, but this was still marginally better than other party leaders.

Opposition Leader and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa had a net negative rating of 57%, not significantly different to that of NPP and JVP Leader A.K. Dissanayake, who had a net negative rating of 55%. 

Recent interviews suggest that Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ratings may have started to recover from the deep lows (-80%) they maintained for most of the year, with his favourability rating recovering to a net negative 51% in November.

SLOTS has been tracking favourability of leading politicians daily since August 2021. 

Through the end of 2021, SLPP Leader President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, maintained an edge in favourability over Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. The economic and political crisis that hit at the start of the year then collapsed President Rajapaksa’s favourability and dragged down the favourability ratings of all politicians SLOTS tracks, with the public expressing unfavourable views of all by April 2022. 

From June, the favourability of the other party leaders began to recover but remained deeply negative through October, after which the latest interviews suggest the public is becoming more negative in their views.

Ranil Wickremesinghe maintained modestly more negative ratings than Sajith Premadasa through the end of 2021, but since the current crisis hit and following his election as President, his ratings have generally been slightly less negative. However, public views of both of them appear to have become more negative since September 2022.

IHP’s Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) is a telephone survey that interviews nationally representative samples of the public every day. SLOTS tracks favourability by asking respondents if they have a favourable or unfavourable opinion of a public figure or institution; net favourability being the average of the positive and negative responses. 

The question that SLOTS uses is a standard one used in similar surveys around the world. Scores range from +100 (everyone has a favourable view) to -100 (everyone has an unfavourable view). 

This is more an indicator of general sentiment about politicians than how people will vote, something that SLOTS tracks separately. For example, United States President Bill Clinton’s favourability ratings slid in his second term following personal scandals and impeachment, but his political support and job approval were lifted by a booming economy. 

The Institute for Health Policy (IHP), is an independent, non-partisan research centre 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 numerous opinion surveys over three decades.