May 16, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The approval rating of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet remains stable, according to a poll by Adimark Gfk. 46.1 per cent of respondents are satisfied with Bachelet’s performance, practically unchanged since March. However, her disapproval rating has increased by 3.6 points.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The approval rating of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet remains stable, according to a poll by Adimark Gfk. 46.1 per cent of respondents are satisfied with Bachelet’s performance, practically unchanged since March. However, her disapproval rating has increased by 3.6 points.

Bachelet—a former defence minister—was elected in a January 2006 run-off as the candidate for the centre-left Agreement of Parties for Democracy (CPD) with 53.49 per cent of all cast ballots. She officially took over as president in March 2006.

Since taking office, Bachelet has faced massive protests staged by high school students complaining about the poor quality of public education, as well as street demonstrations in Santiago, the capital city, over the botched implementation of a new transportation program called Transantiago.

On May 10, an unidentified hacker posted confidential information on more than six million Chileans in a technology blog. "Anonymous Coward" apparently sought to bring attention to data security problems in the country. In one of his postings, he said he wanted "to demonstrate how poorly protected the data in Chile is, and how nobody works to safeguard it." Police confirmed that the hacker "stole" the information from Military, Education Ministry, and Electoral Services servers.

Presidential spokesman Francisco Vidal referred to the incident as "a serious and delicate issue."

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of Michelle Bachelet’s performance as president?

	Apr. 2008	Mar. 2008	Feb. 2008
Approve	46.1%	46.4%	42.3%
Disapprove	38.8%	35.2%	39.4%

Source: Adimark Gfk
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,019 Chilean adults, conducted from Apr. 7 to Apr. 29, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.