AKD only major party leader with positive net favourability rating in April

• Public continue to have unfavourable views of other party leaders according to SLOTS

In the latest Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) polling NPP/JVP leader’s A.K. Dissanayake’s favourability rating continued to improve, becoming net positive overall at +7. President Ranil Wickremasinghe’s favourability improved 29 points from -68 in March to -39 in April.

The public however, continued to have a more unfavourable opinion of him than SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa, whose favourability rating changed little (-31 in March to -26 in April). President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (-94) continued to have the most negative ratings.

Favourability estimates for each month are based on 100-400 interviews conducted during that month and during a few weeks before and afterwards to ensure a minimum set of responses. The April 2023 estimates are based on 383 (Sajith Premadasa), 311 (A.K. Dissanayake), 388 (Ranil Wickremasinghe) and 139 (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) interviews. SLOTS compiler Institute for Health Policy (IHP) said it has noted that some members of the public misunderstand media reporting of these numbers.

Negative scores, i.e., a net favourability rating of less than zero, means that the individual or institution is unpopular. Only positive scores, i.e., net favourability is more than zero, mean that the individual or institution is popular on average. 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 has trained in public opinion polling at Harvard University and has conducted numerous surveys over three decades.