Here’s an unusual thing. Normally in Peru a newly minted Prez will have his honeymoon ratings for the first couple of months, but once the rot starts the approval figures go directly into free-fall and bottom out at 20% (Garcia) or lower (Toledo). So the numbers out of Peru’s pollster Datum today are cause for an eyebrow to be raised:
The 50% overall approval for Ollanta Humala as collected in the survey of 1204 people between Jan 5th and Jan 8th still isn’t the knockout numbers enjoyed by Santos in Colombia or Correa in Ecuador, but in context it’s not bad and does represent a two point rise from the same polling company’s same survey in December.
Just to add a detail, the top three reasons given by those that approve of his work are that he’s keeping his promises, he’s maintaining economic stability and he’s implementing his State pension scheme for all those over 65 years old.
UPDATE: Twitterpal Klichstig notes that in 2006, Alan Twobreakfasts García got a one point pop-ette in November (pollster Apoyo) after polling downwards post-honeymoon. It turned out to be the anomaly as after that, things went seriously downhill ratings-wise. Fair enough and one poll doesn’t make for a trend, so let’s see what Datum turns up in Feb and March before jumping to conclusions. Gracias, Klichstig