(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - After a short recovery, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet has lost public backing again, according to a poll by CERC. 44 per cent of respondents approve of Bachelet’s performance, down six points since April.

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 Aug. 14, as Bachelet congratulated lawmakers for approving funds to subsidize public transportation in the capital city and other regions, she urged regional governors to disclose how each representative in the legislature voted on this measure. The president said that authorities "should talk face-to-face with the citizenry to explain their plans and the difficulties that we sometimes face in trying to make progress and that, if someone wants to oppose a project, the people have the right to know who they are and what their reasons are."

Polling Data

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

Source: Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Contemporánea (CERC)
Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 Chilean adults, conducted from Jul. 20 to Jul. 28, 2008. Margin of error is 2.3 per cent.

Archive Search

Over 19,600 Polls
Search the Angus Reid Global Monitor Polls & Research archive.