Overwhelming majority trusts army, security agencies

AMMAN — A poll published Tuesday revealed that 90 per cent of Jordanians are satisfied with the performance of the Jordan Armed Forces and other security bodies.

The survey, carried out between August 28 and September 1 by the Centre for Strategic Studies  (CSS) at the University of Jordan, polled 1,792 Jordanians over the age of 18 and a smaller group of 700 “opinion leaders” made up of political figures, academics and journalists.

The polled segments’ satisfaction with the government's performance was 47 per cent, while it was 32 per cent and 31 per cent when it comes to the Lower House and the political parties respectively.

According to the poll, a copy of which was obtained by The Jordan Times, 57 per cent of opinion leaders and 40 per cent of the national sample saw the country on the right track, citing the country's security, stability, reforms and “wise management” of the current stage.

Meanwhile, the 54 per cent of the national sample and 35 per cent of the opinion leaders who saw the situation in Jordan as going in the wrong direction based their assessment on high living costs, poverty, unemployment, corruption, favouritism, the huge influx of Syrian refugees and the large number of guest workers.  

Unveiling the results of the poll on Tuesday, CSS Director Musa Shteiwi said that 86 per cent of the opinion leaders and 62 per cent of the national sample saw the Islamic State group as a terrorist organisation with the two segments saying the same about Jabhat Al Nusra. 

Within the same domain, 62 per cent of the opinion leaders and 39 per cent of the national segment described Yemen’s Houthi group as a terrorist organisation, the report said.

A majority of 72 per cent of all respondents singled out the economic problem (unemployment, high living costs and poverty) as the major challenge to the country.

Only 16 per cent of the interviewees described the economic situation as better than during the past 12 months, while 29 per cent of them saw no changes, according to the report.

Sixty-two per cent of the interviewees believed that the government is doing its utmost to provide citizens with services, according to the report. 

On other domestic policies, 87 per cent of the polled segments hailed the government’s measures to control the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi), the report said.

Concerning regional matters, 35 per cent of the national segment showed support for the Syrian opposition, while only 13 per cent supported the Damascus government.  The poll found that 33 per cent of the opinion leaders supported the Syrian government and 28 per cent of them supported the exiled opposition.

Meanwhile, 79 per cent of the questionnaire respondents said “no” to the continued reception of Syrian refugees while only 19 per cent said “yes” compared with 71 per cent and 26 per cent in the poll conducted in November 2013.