PHOTO: Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia
Naymote Partners for Development has just released findings of a study, which reveals that trust in the credibility of the Armed Force of Liberia (AFL) has hugely increased, although majority of respondents in a survey think that generally “the country is going or somehow going in the wrong direction”.
This report assesses citizens’ perception of the quality of governance in Liberia. This is the seventh perception survey on governance released by Naymote Partners for Democratic Development. https://tinyurl.com/uhec6kt link to full report.
According to a NAYMOTE press release issued Monday evening, September 6, 2021, this report is based on a survey administered, in July and August 2021, to a sample of 3,220 registered voters (women 56.2% and 43.8% men) in 46 electoral districts (63% of total districts) selected from the 15 counties.
Of this sample, 48.3% of respondents were between the ages of 18 and 35, this means that younger people mostly participated in the survey. This trend aligns with the fact that young people constituted a little over 65% of the total number of registered voters in the 2017 elections. Over 35% of respondents were between the ages 36-50; while 16.1% were 50 and above.
Overall, 78.4% of respondents think the country is going or somehow going in the wrong direction while 20.5% think the country is going or somehow going in the right direction. In the 2019 survey findings, 82% of respondents said the country was going in the wrong direction. This suggests a slight decrease in negative perceptions of the management and governance of the country. When asked about the economy, 87.3% of the respondents described the current economic conditions in the country as very poor or poor, as compared to 89% who described it as very poor or poor in the 2019 survey report.
Sixty eight percent (68%) of respondents said they are very satisfied or satisfied with the way democracy is working in the country, while 30% said they are not satisfied; 2% said they don’t know. In the 2019 survey report, 57% of respondents said they were very satisfied and satisfied with the way democracy was working in the country. This suggests a sharp increase in citizens’ level of satisfaction with the quality of democracy in the country.
Over 72% of respondents described government information sharing with the people as poor or very poor, 26% described government information sharing as very good and good, while 1.1% said they don’t know. 78.3% of respondents described the performance of elected and appointed officials making decisions for the people of Liberia as poor or very poor, 13.5% said fair, 7.1% said good or very good while 1.1% said they don’t know.
The relationship between legislators and their constituents seems to be weak: 79.7% of respondents described the performance of the lawmakers as poor or very poor, 19.5% described legislators’ performance as very good or good, while 0.8% said they don’t know.
Over 79% of respondents described the quality of services (safe drinking water, health, and education) in their district or town as poor or very poor, 19.9% described quality of services as good or very good while 0.6% said they don’t know.
Over 69% of respondents described government performance in handling the fight against COVID-19 pandemic as good or very good, 13.4 described it as fair, 16.5% described it as poor or very poor while 0.9% said they don’t know.
Trust in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) has increased: 92% of respondents rated the AFL as the most trusted or fairly trusted security institution in Liberia. This is a remarkable increase from 2019 when 78% of respondents described the AFL as most trusted. Trust in the Liberia National Police (LNP) has also increased: 71% of respondents rated the LNP as the most trusted or fairly trusted national security institution. This suggests a sharp increase from 2019 when 56% indicated that they trusted the LNP. However, trust in the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) has declined: 78% of respondents don’t trust the LDEA in 2021, as compared to 57% of respondents in 2019.