MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan president Mujica at his lowest approval rate since taking office

Mujica has seen his support plummet to 36% following on growing unsolved problems

The approval of Uruguayan president Jose Mujica dropped to 36% which is the lowest since he took office in March 2010, and the lowest of the ruling coalition Broad Front, according to the latest public opinion release.

In the last six months support for President Mujica was down eleven percentage points from 47% in February, reports pollster Cifra. The fall was of three percentage points compared to his lowest previous rating in June 2011.

When Mujica took off two years and a half ago, he had the support of 66% of Uruguayans which is more than the 51% who actually cast a vote for him in November.

According to Luis Eduardo Gonzalez, head of Cifra, “various” factors have coincided in the loss of approval for the president’s performance among which the “lack of solution” to problems “of high concern” for public opinion such as security, education, health plus growing inflation and its impact on salaries.

The poll also shows that while 36% of Uruguayans approve the performance of Mujica, 77, who is the second president of the catch-all coalition to rule the country. Another 42% disapprove and the remaining 22% does not have an opinion or preferred not to reply.

Splitting these percentages among the three main political parties, 58% of the ruling coalition supports Mujica’s performance while eight out of ten from the senior opposition National party disapprove and only 7% from the junior opposition Colorado party support the president.

However regarding the president’s popularity, Mujica is supported by 71% form his coalition; 10% from the National party and 14% from the Colorado party.

The poll was done between 31 August and 10 September interviewing 800 people on the phone with a margin error of plus/minus 3.4 percentage points.

Asked to comment on the latest opinion poll, President Mujica said “it was not his job to interpret polls; my job is to keep working and that’s it”.