Dr Noppadol Kannikar, director of the centre, announced that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's popularity rating also increased from 23.8 to 28.8 per cent.

Early this month, the university's survey found that Surayud's approval rating fell from 75 per cent in November to 48.2 per cent while Thaksin's popularity rating shot to 21.6 per cent from 15.8 per cent.

But that survey was carried out among 4,334 people in 18 provinces.

The latest survey found that 15.2 per cent of Bangkokians thought Thaksin should return to Thailand now while 26.9 per cent thought Thaksin should further wait before returning to the country and 22 per cent thought Thaksin should wait until after the next election before coming home. The rest have no comments.

Up to 76.1 per cent saw that the political situation had worsened while 10.2 per cent thought it remained the same while 13.7 per cent thought the situation had improved.

And up to 63.9 per cent saw that the political situation was uncertain while 17.4 per cent thought there was certainty in politics now and the rest had no comment.

The survey also found that 49.4 per cent was not certain whether an election would be held later this year while 36.7 per cent thought the election was imminent and the rest had no comment.

The Nation