83% of Jordanians believe Razzaz’s gov’t better than its predecessor — poll

AMMAN — Over 55 per cent of Jordanians and 63 per cent of opinion leaders believe that the situation in Jordan is going in the right direction, an opinion poll revealed on Wednesday.

The poll, conducted by the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) from the day of the formation of Prime Minister Omar Razzaz’s government, surveyed 1,824 Jordanians aged over 18 and a smaller group of 700 “opinion leaders”, including academics, intellectuals, media and business leaders and politicians.

“Twenty-eight per cent of the people who believed things are going in the wrong direction in Jordan attribute the reasons to the high cost of living prices, bad economic situation and corruption,” said CSS Director Musa Shteiwi.

Meanwhile, opinion leaders stated that the main reason “things are going in the wrong direction was the weak government  decisions that are against citizens' interests and the hard economic situation,” Shteiwi told reporters at a press conference held at the CSS.

However, 64 per cent of the grassroots sample and 57 per cent of the opinion leaders stated that the government “will be able to assume its responsibilities in the near future.  The grassroots sample had more faith in Razzaz, with 69 per cent voicing confident in his future performance,” according to Shteiwi.

As for people’s optimism when Razzaz was named to become the prime minister, Shteiwi said the percentage was 81 in his favour but it dropped to 56 when Razzaz formed his government.

Shteiwi added that 83 per cent of those surveyed samples believe that “Razzaz’s government performance will be better than former premier Hani Mulki’s performance”.

Shteiwi said those polled put “unemployment" as one of the most urgent problems in Jordan, followed by the high cost of living and increases in commodities prices.

More than 90 per cent of the surveyed samples expressed trust in the military and security agencies, while their trust in the Lower House and political parties dropped to 14 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively, Shteiwi said.