Cambodians believed country in right direction: reported survey

Posted by Cambodian News

May 31, 2008

Phnom Penh: According to the International Republican Institute’s survey released Tuesday, 77 percent of Cambodians believed that the country is heading in the right direction, but only 20 percent believed that is in wrong direction.

The result of the survey was conducted by IRI, interviewing the two thousand people from provinces and municipalities between January 27 February 26, except Kep and Mondulkiri. IRI, which is funded by the US government, puts the margin error for the result at 2.8 percent.

Most respondents said that the country is headed in right direction because of the construction of new roads (77 percent) and new schools (63 percent).

According to the result of survey, the Cambodians felt that the country is heading in the wrong direction, citing the price of goods (32 percent), corruption (30 percent), poverty (22 percent), energy cost (20 percent), and the business environment (15 percent).

“The IRI’s survey data should not be interpreted as a signal of big gains for the CPP at the ballot box, she noted that the IRI survey ahead of the April 2007 commune election gave similar results- 71 percent saying the country was headed in the right direction- but SRP had its best ever showing at the polls,” Mu Sochua, SRP Deputy Secretary-General, was quoted by The Cambodia Daily as saying

Prime Minister Hun Sen said at National Institute of Education by claiming that SRP is infuriated by the survey result released on Tuesday, he added that SRP used to support the IRI but now they take IRI as their enemies.

“CPP dominance of the media was likely a majority factor in the high number of survey respondents saying the country was moving on the right direction,” Koul Panha, Comfrel director, quoted by The Cambodia Daily as saying.

He told the CPP officials to have to work hard, regardless of the IRI’s survey, in order to fix weakness.