Ammon News - AMMAN - Public confidence in the government of Prime Minister Nader Dahabi has dropped slightly after two years in office, according to the findings of a poll released Monday.

The poll, conducted by the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS), found that 52 per cent of the general public believes that the government is capable of shouldering its responsibilities, compared with 62 per cent in an identical poll taken 100 days after the government was formed.

However, confidence in the current government’s abilities to tackle issues of public concern was significantly lower.

CSS surveys conducted at the time of the formation of any new government usually higher public optimism than those conducted after some time in office, pollsters say.

Confidence in Dahabi remained high, with 59 per cent of respondents saying the premier was successful in shouldering his responsibilities, but public confidence in Dahabi's team stood at only 48 per cent, according to the poll.

CSS pollster Mohammad Masri said public confidence in the government continues to drop, citing the results of the poll as an indication of the “gap” between citizens and the government.

“The gap between the government and citizens is likely to widen unless the government takes action on citizens' priorities,” he said.

Among opinion leaders, 59 per cent said the government was able to shoulder its responsibilities, compared with 60 per cent in the last survey.

However, these opinion leaders expressed a lack of confidence in the ability of the ministers to carry out their duties, with only 47 per cent of respondents approving of the team's performance over the past two years.

The survey also indicated that the public believes the government has failed in handling some issues outlined in its Letter of Designation, including fighting corruption, entrenching equal opportunity among citizens, speeding up the country’s recently announced nuclear programme and addressing unemployment and poverty.

The poll, which the CSS has been conducting for 15 years, periodically gauges the confidence of the general public and opinion leaders including politicians, intellectuals, academicians and professionals, in the performance of governments.

As many as 1,180 respondents took part in the poll, with only 20 refusing to answer pollsters. The poll had a 3 per cent margin of error.

(Mohammad Ben Hussein/Jordan Times)