WikiLeaks: 80% Says MR Is Corrupt And 85% Says His Family Is Corrupt: MR’s Chief Pollster
December 27, 2014
“President Rajapaksa’s chief opinion pollster – who is a good contact of the embassy on other issues – shared with us the first findings from their initial survey. These initial responses indicated that potential voters had little interest in the symbolic issues” US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.
I’m not a yes–man, 80 percent says you are corrupt
The Colombo Telegraph found the leaked cable from the Wikileak database. The cable classified as “CONFIDENTIAL” and signed by the US Ambassador to Colombo Patricia A. Butenis on December 26, 2009.
The cable recounts details of a meeting US Ambassador to Colombo has had with President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s chief pollster and his close advisor Sunimal Fernando. Under the subheading “PRESIDENTIAL POLLSTER SURPRISED BY GOOD FIGURS” the ambassador wrote “Only about 10% cared about the president’s creation of a ‘patriotic society’ after the war or his willingness to stand tall against the west. Also, many voters saw the Rajapksa family as corrupt (85%) and the president himself as corrupt (80%). Despite all his faults, the pollster claimed, many voters still saw Rajapkasa as a man of action and a man of his word and would vote for him over Fonseka.”
Placing a comment she wrote “the pollster prides himself on being one of the few figures in the president’s circle who gives him objective information and is not a yes – man… we find interesting the very high negatives for the president on corruption and apparent lack of voter interest in Rajapaksa’s standard patriotic issues, which could eat away at the president’s positive figures as the campaign progresses”
