HOUSE president Demetris Christofias came top of the popularity stakes among party leaders in an opinion poll released yesterday.
The AKEL leader garnered a 69.7 per cent positive rating from the 1,000 people asked by the pollsters last month.
The only one remotely close to him was former president and United Democrats leader George Vassiliou, who was viewed positively by 61.1 per cent of respondents – though his party only garnered 1.9 per cent of voter intentions in the same poll.
Next came Yiannakis Omirou of KS EDEK (53 per cent), acting DIKO leader Nicos Cleanthous (46), DISY boss Nicos Anastasiades (39.7), Green party leader George Perdikis (38), Nicos Koutsou of New Horizons (30.2) and Dinos Michaelides (20.7).
President Tassos Papadopoulos also got a largely positive response with a total of 60.8 per cent satisfied with his performance (39.5 per cent ‘fairly satisfied’ and 21.2 per cent ‘very satisfied’. A total of 34.4 percent were unhappy with the president (of whom 12.6 per cent ‘very unhappy’).
His score was more than matched by the government as a whole, with 41.3 per cent of respondents fairly satisfied with ministers’ performance and 13.6 per cent very satisfied.
The government’s popularity was reflected in relative dissatisfaction at opposition DISY’s performance, with 34.2 per cent ‘fairly dissatisfied’, and 19.7 ‘totally dissatisfied’.
Indeed, opinions of government and opposition seemed split along party lines, with 52.4 per cent saying they would vote for parties in the governing coalition (54.9 per cent of respondents had expressed overall satisfaction with the government).
Of the parties, communist AKEL came top, with 31.8 per cent, followed by DISY (28.9), DIKO (12.5), KS EDEK (5.1), the Greens (3), United Democrats (1.9) and New Horizons (1.6). Thirteen per cent of respondents were not sure how they would vote, and 2.1 per cent were sure they would vote for no one, casting a blank vote.
Voting in Cyprus is compulsory – hence the blank votes – but this could change for the European elections, which will be held on the island for the first time next June. Indeed, only 39 per cent of the sample felt voting in the Euro elections should be mandatory, compared to 55.5 per cent who felt it should be voluntary.
The pollsters also questioned respondents on visits to the north since the opening of the checkpoints in April: 42.5 per cent of people asked had visited, of whom 42.5 per cent returned with a negative impression of the Turkish Cypriots, 34 per cent said their views were unchanged, and 23.4 per cent had been positively impressed.
A majority of those old enough to remember the north had crossed over, with 55.4 per cent of those in the 55-64 age group having made the trip down memory lane. Conversely, the group least interested in visiting the north was the 25-34-year-olds, only 33.3 per cent of whom had crossed the Green Line.
Likewise, a significant majority of refugees (71.2 per cent) had returned to see their homes, while only 27.5 per cent of non-refugees had been willing to cross.
Meanwhile, there was bad news for the beleaguered Church of Cyprus, with almost three quarters of those asked dissatisfied with its operation.
The survey was carried out by CYMAR Market Research ltd. Between September 18 and 29. A sample of 1,000 people over the age of 18 from all over Cyprus were questioned in face to face interviews.
