Monday 04 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
Drug Addiction
Affects "All Social Classes"
Oscar Arias' Image
Tarnishing, Latest Poll
Reveals
Supreme Court Upholds
Villalobos Conviction
Geothermal Energy
Leatherbacks
Mother's Day Sales Not
Heating Up
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Oscar Arias' Image
Tarnishing, Latest Poll
Reveals
The public image of
Costa Rican president,
Oscar Arias, is not as
shiny as it was recently
with only 27.5% of Costa
Ricans polled say he is
doing a "good" job.
According to a recent
poll by Demoscopía for
the Spanish language Al
Día, last April 44.2% of
Costa Rican said that
Arias was doing a good
job, while the number
who say that he is doing
a a "bad" job grew to
21.3%, up from the 13.2%
in April. The poll shows
that 50.7% of Costa
Ricans say that the prez
is doing a "regular"
job, up from 42.1% in
April.
In addition, Costa
Ricans now feel that
Arias is not making good
on his election promises
and that he is not
managing well the
country's finances.
In contrast to what
Costa Ricans felt about
their president in
April, many are
beginning to question
his leadership,
effectiveness as
president, his values
and vision for the
future.
In general the image of
the president is at a
low from the high during
his first two years in
office.
over the management of
government resources
donated to the Banco
Centroamericano de
Integración Económica (BCIE)
and the government of
Taiwan, which were to be
used to provide housing
for the poor, but were
used to pay consultants,
according to
investigations of La
Nacion.
"Oscar has been living
the glories of the past
and is not guaranteeing
the present. His image
is very fragile and
faced with the BCIE
scandal does not have
the forcefulness or the
image positioning to
save him", said Alberto
Rodríguez, president of
Demoscopía.
The confidence level of
the public in their
president and his
ministers had diminished
since last November when
39.8% of the people said
they had "lots" of
confidence, while today
the confidence level is
down to 25.4%.
Compared to Demoscopía
polls taken in 2006 and
2007 more Costa Ricans
today who doubt the
capacity of their
president and his
knowledge of the
realities of the country
or his agility to make
timely decisions.
Rodriguez argues that
the fall the president's
image goes beyond the
cyclical and it will be
quite difficult for him
to regain the positive
levels enjoyed during
the first two years of
his current
administration.
"The Government has put
all itse eggs in one
basket, which is the
Tratado Libre de
Comercio (TLC) - North
American Free Trade
Agreement with the
United States (NAFTA)
and is devoid of any
important project at the
national level in other
areas. Now you cannot
grab at anything and the
only thing left is the
treaty which is moving
slowly in the
Legislative Assembly",
said Rodriguez. |
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