Almost six months completed at La Fortaleza, governor Ricardo Rosselló´s administration has got almost equal approval and disapproval ratings, according to a survey conducted by El Nuevo Día. Approval was expressed by 39% of participants, while the disapproval rating was 38%.

Meanwhile, 19% of the participants of  the poll neither approved nor disapproved the administration of the New Progressive Party (NPP) Governor and 4% of them weren’t quite sure about how to evaluate it.

El Nuevo Día’s Survey yields a “sampling error” not bigger than, plus or minus, 3.1% of what would have been obtained  interviewing the whole elegible to vote  population. The margin of error grows when describing smaller subgroups within the sample. 

Blue-colored acceptance

As might be expected, the highest approval level on the Governor’s work was registered amongst the New Progressive Party (NPP) affiliated members, with 73%, and among those who voted for him in the last elections, with 71% of the total. The subgroup of PNP affiliates has a margin of error of, more or less, 4.5%.

Meanwhile, the disapproval rating for Rosselló is higher among the Popular Democratic Party (PPD, Spanish acronym) affiliated members, with a rate of 75%. This subgroup has a margin error close to 6.2%.

Disapproval also reigns over the affiliates of other political parties and independent candidates, with 62% rates. The margin of error for this subgroup is higher, of approximately 10.6%.

In the case of the non affiliated, one out of two (or the 49%), claim to disapprove Rosselló’s administration, against 14% that approve it. The margin of error is, more or less, 8.9%.

With more acceptance than his predecessor

In this first five months, Rosselló’s performance, with 39% of acceptance, shows a better scenario than that of Alejandro García Padilla after a hundred days of his administration, when only 30% of the participants of April 2013 survey showed approval towards his administration.

The 46% disapproval rate that García Padilla had during the first days after his arrival at La Fortaleza was also higher than the 38% disapproval rate that the participants to the recent survey show towards Rosselló nowadays.

On the other hand, the percentage rate among the ones who neither approve nor disapprove Rosselló’s administration, of 19%, is comparable with Garcia Padilla’s from April 2013, which was of 21%. In the same way, 4% of the participants are not sure how to evaluate Rosselló’s work so far, in the line with the 3% García Padilla had at a similar point during his term in office. 

The approval of the richer and more educated

The approval levels for Rosselló by democratic groups show some singularities.

The age groups in which his approval is higher are the ones between 45 and 64 years old and 65 years or more, with 44% and 45% of the total, respectively.

On the other hand, the Governor’s disapproval is higher among adults between 35 and 44 years old, with a 44% rate, against a 34% that approve his administration. This difference of 10 percentage points falls outside of the margin of error for this subgroup, which is less than 5.5%.

The performance approval of these first five months of Rosselló’s administration increases with the level of education and the annual family income.

Among those with at least a college degree, Rosselló’s approval level is of 43% of the total, while he only gets a 36% approval rate between the participants with higher education level or less.

In the same way, among participants with annual family incomes of $15,000 or less, 33% support Rosselló’s administration and 45% don’t.

Meanwhile, in households with annual family incomes of $25,000 or more, the Governor’s approval rises to 46%.

The expectations are similar

The 36% of the participants of El Nuevo Día Survey reckon that Rosselló’s performance as governor has been “worse than expected”, a percentage that is quite similar to the 35% who think it has been “as it was expected to be” and that is higher than the 23% who claim it has been “better than expected”. The remaining 6% don’t know what to think about it.

In the ranks of the New Progressive Party (NPP) the opinion is divided, because 43% of the affiliated members think that Governor Rosselló has performed “better than expected” and the same proportion actually think that his performance has been “as it was expected”. 

Likewise, one of every ten PNP affiliated members (which equals 11% of the total amount) feels that Rosselló’s administration leading the country has been “worse than expected”.

At the same time, the majority of Popular Democratic Party (PPD, Spanish acronym) affiliated members, other minority parties,  independent candidates and non affiliated say that Governor Rosselló’s administration has been “worse than expected”.

In the case of the PPD affiliated members, 69% think so, compared to a 55% of other parties members and independent candidates, and a 50% of the nonaffiliated.

However, Rosselló’s ratings in this part of the survey exceed García Padilla’s, according to the results of the survey of April 2013. Specifically, while 23% feel that Rosselló’s administration has been “better than expected”, only 12% felt that way about García Padilla’s administration after a hundred days of the initiation of his four year mandate.

Nevertheless, those who believe that Rosselló’s performance has been “worse than expected”, with a 36% of the total number, are not far from the ones that felt the same way about García Padilla in 2013, with a 40% of the participants.

In the “as it was expected to be” line, Rosselló counts on a 35%, compared to the 41% that García Padilla had in a similar sample from the beginning of his mandate.