Most Bangkok residents are satisfied with the performance of governor Chadchart Sittipunt after one year in office although his approval rating has dropped since a similar survey conducted after his first six months, according to the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
A sample of 2,000 eligible voters aged 18 and over of various levels of education and incomes in all 50 districts was questioned by telephone on May 24-30.
In terms of his overall performance, 45.45% said they were satisfied and said the governor had worked hard and quickly to solve problems.
They noted an improvement in the capital, with 27.75% saying they were very satisfied because he delivered what he had promised during his campaign and was always on the ground to listen to people’s problems.
However, about 14.8% said they were not satisfied with his work as he had not delivered as promised and many problems in the capital had not been fixed. About 10% said they were very unsatisfied because they had seen no change.
In an earlier poll on Dec 4 last year, 38.93% professed to be very satisfied, more than the latest poll’s figure of 27.75%, while scores for those who are not satisfied and highly dissatisfied increased from 7.93% last time to 10% this time and 10.54% to 14.8% respectively.
The participants were also asked to rate Mr Chadchart’s performance in 17 different areas including the issue of public parks. A majority (42%) were satisfied with his work while 10.95% were not satisfied. Almost half (44.35%) were satisfied with the management of garbage, dust and wastewater while 12.35% gave him a rating of “poor”. For flood management, 36.15% said his performance was good while 12.8% thought it poor.
Chadchart: Not worried by drop in approval ratings.
Mr Chadchart said yesterday that although the poll showed a dip in popularity, he was not worried.
“I will take all the feedback and improve my work. I did my best during this first year and also received good cooperation from all agencies. I will also work with the new government to find solutions to help reduce the cost of living for people,” he said.
Flooding will be less of a problem in Bangkok during this year’s rainy season, he said, because the city’s infrastructure for dealing with inundation has been improved.