The nationwide poll of public reactions to government policy conducted by the National Democratic Party has produced a mixed bag of results, reports Mohamed El-Sayed The National Democratic Party (NDP) announced on Monday the results of a nationwide poll gauging public reaction to a wide range of government policies. Of the 2,400 families that took part, 39 per cent said that they "trusted" the government, an increase on last year's figure of 21 per cent, though fewer respondents had confidence that chronic problems such as unemployment and inflation were being tackled. Respondents aged between 18 and 30 had less faith in the government than older generations. Asked whether they had trust in "the government in general" only 30 per cent answered yes, down from 38 per cent last year. Questioned about the issues that concerned them most, 58 per cent of the sample said creating job opportunities should be the government's number one priority. Among young people the percentage was slightly higher at 63 per cent. While education, health, water and agriculture counted for 40 per cent of people's major concerns, surprisingly only one per cent of those polled cited housing. "That price rises topped people's concerns last year was understandable given the level of inflation at that time," says Alia El-Mahdi, a member of the NDP's Policies Committee and dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. "Thankfully, commodity prices have dropped this year." Improved public services were reflected in the answers of respondents. Seventy-nine per cent said they had access to clean potable water, and 65 per cent said subsidised bread was readily available. A majority, however, felt that the quality of subsidised bread needs to be improved. The same applied to public transport and railways and the disposal of solid waste. Though the global financial crisis has taken its toll on revenues from tourism, the Suez Canal and remittances from overseas workers, 64 per cent expressed optimism in the country's economic prospects, a marked increase on the 41 per cent who expressed a positive opinion on the same subject last year, at the start of the financial crisis. That mood was carried over into predictions of a brighter future. Two- thirds of families expected their standard of living to improve in the near future, up from 43 per cent in 2008. "Overall, the results suggest the public has experienced an improvement in living standards in 2009 over 2008," says NDP Policies Committee member Mohamed Kamal. "Falling inflation seems to underlie the more positive outlook people are taking of the economy." The poll also attempted to gauge attitudes to international affairs. The highly publicised spread of swine flu and bird flu led 66 per cent to say epidemics posed the biggest threat to Arab national security. They were followed by water scarcity, Israel and terrorism. Resolving the Palestinian cause, relations with other Arab countries, particularly Sudan, and opening new markets for Egyptian exports topped people's concerns in the international arena. Those polled said they depended on television, particularly satellite channels, as their main source of information. Newspapers and the Internet came third, after "friends", as news sources. According to El-Mahdi, the poll showed citizens of Delta governorates as generally more positive than residents of Cairo and Alexandria, while those living in Upper Egypt gave mostly neutral answers. She points out that while "people trust in the government in general, when it comes to actual details people's confidence in the government is low". El-Mahdi stresses that the poll was not limited to members of the NDP, and included a random sample of people from different age categories. "The pollsters did not even mention they were affiliated with the NDP since we wanted people to speak freely," she says. Political analysts take such caveats with a grain of salt. "I don't believe this poll was not limited to members of the NDP given its generally optimistic results. They hardly reflect reality," says Amr Hashem Rabie, an expert in political parties at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. "Had people from outside the NDP been polled the results would have been completely different." Rabie was nonetheless surprised by some of the replies. "The answers suggest growing anger, particularly when it comes to the government's satisfaction ratings." Since 2003 the poll has been conducted annually during the first week of July. Interviewers speak with a representative selection of families from each of Egypt's 28 governorates, quizzing them as to their perception of government policy. So what benefits does the poll hold for the NDP? "I will hold an expanded meeting with NDP heads in all governorates in order to discuss the outcome of the poll and the priorities expressed by the respondents," said Gamal Mubarak, chairman of the NDP's Policies Committee. "The NDP is keen to meet the challenges Egyptians face in their daily life. Curbing unemployment by creating more job opportunities and increasing investment is clearly a major preoccupation of society as a whole." Mubarak stressed that opinion polls "have become an essential foundation for formulating policy". The concerns that emerged in the poll, he said, "will form the basis of the working papers which will be discussed during the annual convention of the party in November".
