CENSURE DEBATE
Most people are satisfied with last week's censure debate and have applauded the opposition party for being informative and well-organised, according to the Suan Dusit Poll.
Up to 50.97% of the 1,336 people whose views were sought countrywide by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, were impressed by the information presented by the Democrat party during the no-confidence debate against the Samak Sundaravej government.
Mr Samak and his ministers were shaken to their boots by the sharp-tongued Democrats, the sole opposition party, who took them to task for their poor vision and unrealible policies, ranging from offering support to Cambodia's move to list the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site to ineffective solutions on the reeling economy.
Of those polled, 32.65% of respondents said the debate awakened them to many facts and showed them what a mess Thai politics was in, while 20.41% said they now had a much clearer idea about the government stance on the Preah Vihear issue, which is under heavy criticism in both legal and political circles.
However, the debate also had its disappointments, as 29.31% said some debaters spoke off-theme while 22.41% said too many "unreasonable protests" were made to disrupt the debate. Dissatisfaction with the customary voting was 20.69% among the respondents, for requiring MPs to vote along party lines.
Despite growing criticism of the government policies, a separate poll found that most people still support the prime minister.
The Assumption University (Abac) poll sampled 5,453 people from 18 provinces and asked whether they still back Mr Samak as prime minister. Up to 52% said they do. The figure is a slight increase from the 48.5% of those polled before the debate.
Only 40.6% said they disliked Mr Samak while 7.4% offered no opinions.
Abac poll director Nopadon Kannikar noted the percentage of what he called the "quiet force," or the undecided, has gradually decreased from 22.4% since March this year. This shows many people from this group have begun to support the government, he said.
But those changing their mind in favour of the government are mostly in the Northeast, a stronghold of the ruling People Power party and the dissolved Thai Rak Thai party, says the poll.
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