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No international leader inspires wide confidence, poll finds
Only UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received largely positive ratings in the poll, which asked respondents whether they trusted international leaders “to do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
The poll was conducted between Jan.10 and May 6 among 19,751 respondents from China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, Britain, France, Spain, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, the Palestinian territories, South Korea and Thailand.
President George W. Bush from the US, President Nicolas Sarkozy from France, Prime Minister Gordon Brown from Great Britain, President Vladimir Putin from Russia, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from the United Nations, President Hu Jintao from China, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from Iran and President Pervez Musharraf from Pakistan were among the leaders discussed in the poll.
Thirty five percent of those polled in Turkey expressed a lot of confidence in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and 20 percent expressed some confidence, whereas 8 percent said they did not have much confidence in him and 30 percent said they had no confidence in him at all.
With a total of 55 percent expressing at least some confidence in Erdoğan, it seems he remains popular inside Turkey despite a closure case filed against his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
Turks, like Middle Eastern publics, expressed low confidence in world leaders but, unlike the people polled in the Middle East, they expressed low confidence in Middle Eastern leaders as well. Turks said they lacked confidence in every one of an extensive list of foreign leaders they were asked to rate.
Only 16 percent of those polled in Turkey expressed confidence in Iran’s Ahmadinejad, who was followed by Pakistan’s Musharraf with 15 percent, China’s Hu Jintao with 13 percent, Russia’s Putin with 11 percent, by the UN’s Ban Ki-moon with 9 percent, by Britain’s Brown with 8 percent, America’s Bush with 7 percent and France’s Sarkozy with 5 percent.
Sixteen of the 20 publics surveyed said they lack confidence in President Bush. Just two countries -- Nigeria and India -- gave Bush positive ratings, while a third -- Thailand -- was split. Bush also got the highest average percentage of negative ratings, with 67 percent.
Although China is a rising world power, most publics did not express confidence in Chinese President Hu Jintao. Thirteen publics gave Hu predominantly negative ratings, while only five tended to be positive.
Eleven publics expressed negative views about Putin, while just five were positive and three were divided. On average 32 percent expressed confidence in Putin, but a larger 48 percent did not.
The only world leader who garnered relatively positive reviews was the UN’s Ban. In nine nations a majority said they have some or a lot of confidence in him. Only in eight nations did a majority say they have little or no confidence in him.
British Prime Minister Brown got positive ratings in six nations, yet eleven publics said they do not trust him.
Pakistani President Musharraf has the poorest ratings around the world. Only in China do the positive views outweigh the negative. Nigeria is divided and the other nations lean toward the negative.
In the Middle East publics are generally the most negative: Egyptians, Jordanians, Iranians and Palestinians expressed little or no confidence in nearly all of the leaders rated.
On average, 25 percent of those surveyed expressed confidence in Sarkozy, while 48 percent expressed little or no confidence.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, got negative ratings in 13 nations, the most after Bush and Musharraf.
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