(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The approval rating of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet has remained stable since late last year, according to a poll by CEP. 40 per cent of respondents approve of the head of state’s performance, up one point since December.

Conversely, 43 per cent of respondents disapprove of Bachelet’s work.

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.

The student protests led to a promise to overhaul Chile’s current education system, which was designed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and favours private schools over public institutions. The government sent legislators the first in a series of education reform bills earlier this month.

On Jul. 8, thousands of teachers, students and supporters protested against the first bill, claiming it does not do enough to really change the status quo of Chile’s education system. Jaime Gajardo, president of the country’s largest teachers union, said during the rally: "We want quality education for all our girls and boys. (...) We’re going to turn this into a national movement."

Polling Data

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

Source: Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP)
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 1,505 Chilean adults, conducted from Jun. 7 to Jun. 26, 2008. Margin of error is 3.0 per cent.

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