La Prensa Grafica (LPG) and Mitofsky, a Mexican polling firm, recently carried out two separate surveys in El Salvador. LPG surveyed 1,200 Salvadorans and Mitofsky 1,000. Both surveys were conducted between February 18 and 20 with roughly identical margins of error (LPG +/-2.9% and Mitofsky +/- 3.1%).
The results show that Salvadorans are not happy with the state of the country's secutiry and economic conditions, but don't hold Funes entirely responsible. In the LPG survey, 71% of those surveyed believe that the country is heading in a bad or very bad direction and that President Funes is losing control of the country (51%).
Eighty-four percent say that the cost of living is bad or very bad while 74% respond that the jobs situation is bad or very bad. Only half the population give Funes credit for solving the country's economic problems.
Six hundred seventy-two Salvadorans were killed during the first two months of 2011 (11 per day). Given the continued insecurity, only 44% think that the Funes government is solving security problems
However, given the poor economic and security situation in the country, 70% still evaluate Funes' performance positively.
For the most part, the Mitofsky poll reports identical findings. Seventy-two percent approve of Funes's performance. On the other hand, 51% think that he is losing control of the country. Eighty-four percent say that the economic situation has worsened and 65% that the security situation has worsened.
When asked whether the political, economic or security situation has improved, the economy was the only issue where there was positive movement. Fourteen percent said that the situation had improved since the last survey in November (up from 12%).
The Mitofsky poll does show some worrisome results, particularly as it reflects citizens expectations of the government and the extent to which the government is in control of the country. The percentage of respondents saying that the government is what it had hoped for declined from 47% (November) to 36% (February), well below the 74% in November 2009. Likewise, 51% say that the government is losing control, up from 40% in November and 24% in November 2009.
So citizens do not see real positive changes in the country's economic performance or in terms of citizen security. However, they don't fully blame Funes for failing to resolve the problems.
And it's not all bad news. According to the LPG survey, the government's performance in the areas of education (63%) and health (52%) get high marks.
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