MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Support for Uruguay president drops to 41%, down from 75% when taking office

Insecurity and rising prices have had a negative impact for President Mujica

Support for Uruguayan president Jose Mujica dropped to 41%, nine percentage points less than last March and 34 points down from when he took office in March 2010, according to an Interconsult public opinion poll published Monday in one of Montevideo’s dailies.

Furthermore the percentage of those who reject President Mujica performance jumped to 20% from 15% in March and 4% in March 2010. Another 39% rate his performance as acceptable.

Even when the majority approval is among voters belonging to the ruling coalition or Broad Front, with 65% support, a third, 32%, of them do not approve how President Mujica is running the country and 3% simply reject his performance.

The main reason to rate the performance as good or bad is the performance of the Uruguayan economy which last year experienced a strong growth of 8.5% with a historic low unemployment of 6%.

On the strictly negative side the interviews mention public insecurity, 51%, increase in prices, 12% and not honouring what was promised, 11%.

Some sectors of the ruling coalition are also dissatisfied with the Uruguayan president for his support to the military and the 1986 amnesty or expired crimes bill, which impedes the investigation of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship (1973/1985).

A damaging controversy has been triggered inside the coalition among the different members that make the catch-all movement that extends from radical groups, former guerrillas and the Communist party to Social Democrats and Christina Democrats.

The poll was done between April 30 and May 4 with a plus/minus margin error of 3.3%.