59% of Mexicans 'Unimpressed' With the Government's Fight Against Corruption, Survey Reveals

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Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO (credit: Getty Images)

Almost six in 10 Mexicans are unimpressed with the efforts of the federal government to combat corruption while two-thirds grade it poorly for its performance on public security, according to a new poll.

Conducted in April and early May by the media partners El Financiero and Bloomberg, the poll found that 59% of 2,000 respondents believe that the government led by President López Obrador is doing a bad job on fighting corruption, a scourge the president has pledged to eliminate but which continues to tarnish his administration.

That’s a 13-point jump compared to March and a 22-point increase compared to January.

The percentage of respondents who believe that the government is doing a good job on combatting corruption fell to 23% in April from 33% in March and 36% in January.

Out of four areas considered by the poll, the government fared worst in public security. Only 18% of respondents said the López Obrador administration is doing a good job addressing the ongoing high levels of violence while 67% said the opposite.

The former figure fell from 20% in March and 26% in January while the latter increased from 61% last month and 57% at the start of the year.

In economic matters, 49% of respondents rated the government’s performance poorly while only 28% praised it. Hit hard by the coronavirus and associated economic restrictions, GDP slumped 8.5% in 2020 and the economy remained in recession in the first quarter of 2020, according to preliminary year-over-year numbers.

Despite Mexico having the fourth highest Covid-19 death toll in the world, the government achieved its best poll result in the area of health, with 36% of respondents saying that it is doing a good job. However, a slightly higher percentage of those polled – 38% – said that the government is performing badly in the area.

Even though the El Financiero/Bloomberg poll shows there is significant discontent with the government, the ruling Morena party and its allies remain on track to win a comprehensive victory in the June 6 Chamber of Deputies election, according to predictions based on the latest “poll of polls” collated by the website Oraculus.

It predicts that Morena will win 44%, or 220, of the 500 seats in the lower house of federal Congress and that its allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM), will each win around 9%, or 43 and 45, respectively. If that occurs, the Morena-PT-PVEM alliance will win 308 of the 500 seats, 300 of which are elected directly and 200 by proportional representation. That would give the coalition a strong majority in the lower house but not the two-thirds majority needed to approve constitutional changes.

Morena and its allies, which include the Social Encounter Party (PES), currently hold 334 lower house seats but Oraculus predicts that the PES – which currently occupies 20 seats – won’t win any seats at the June 6 election.

The president's approval rating according to the 'poll of polls.' Approval is in blue, disapproval in orange

Oraculus predicts that the three-party coalition consisting of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) will win a combined 37% of seats. It predicts that 14% will go to the PRI, 17% to the PAN and 6% to the PRD. It anticipates that the alliance will win a total of 180 seats in the 500-seat chamber and that the other 12 seats will go to the Citizens Movement party.

Oraculus’ latest predictions show that the PRI-PAN-PRD alliance has made up some ground since late last month. The website previously predicted that the Morena-PT-PVEM alliance would win 337 of the lower house seats and that the coalition of opposition parties would take 152.

Sources: El Financiero; MDN