Most still back PAD rallies, but reject violence

The survey was carried out by Assumption University among 3,338 people in Bangkok and 17 other provinces from June 1 to 8. Its results were announced yesterday by Dr Noppadol Kannikar, director of the Abac Poll Institute.

Noppadol said 46 per cent, or the most respondents, said they still supported the PAD but the leaders had to make sure their rallies did not cause turmoil and hardship to the people.

He said 30 per cent of respondents said they did not support the PAD's rallies.

A further 7.6 per cent of Bangkok respondents and 9.4 per cent of those in the provinces said they had tried to persuade other people to oppose the PAD's rallies.

Noppadol said if the PAD ensured that its rallies would not lead to turmoil, it would still enjoy support from the public.

When asked to list what messages they would like to give to the PAD, most respondents said they would like to tell it to demonstrate at a location that would not cause hardship to the people.

The second most cited message was that the respondents wanted the PAD to carry out social services for the community near its rally site, such as cleaning up the roads and directing traffic flows.

When asked to list which groups related to the PAD's protests they were most pleased with, 67 per cent of the respondents mentioned police and 55 per cent the military. Each respondent could cite more than one group.

The survey also found the popularity rating of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej among Bangkok residents increased from 21.4 per cent in May to 28.9 per cent.

After counting opinions of respondents in all provinces, the survey found that 48.5 per cent of the people still support Samak while 32.4 per cent of the respondents said they did not support him and the rest had no comment.

Noppadol said the survey also found the level of happiness of Bangkok and provincial respondents went down to the level of unhappiness caused by the violence in the southern border provinces.