By IANS,
New York : US President George W. Bush and Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf are among the least trusted leaders in the world, a new survey conducted in 20 countries, including India, by a US agency has found.
The two ranked at the bottom along with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the survey carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org on the question of which leader will “do the right thing regarding world affairs”.
While no national leader inspired wide confidence outside their own countries, only 18 percent of those polled had ‘a lot or some’ confidence outside Pakistan in Musharraf, compared to 22 percent for Ahmadinejad and 23 per cent for Bush.
Musharraf fared better only in China, where 37 per cent of the people gave him thumbs up, more than the 30 percent who had negative views.
In India, 45 percent gave a positive rating to Bush compared to negative viewing by 34 percent. As for Musharrraf, 54 percent voted against him, and 25 percent for.
Fifty-three percent Indians think Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will do the right thing for world affairs, with 28 percent not being favourable to him.
The approval ratings for leaders of other countries were not too good, according to the survey report released Monday. Only 26 per cent had confidence in French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 28 per cent in Chinese President Hu Jintao, 30 per cent in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at 35 percent, inspired the highest confidence levels at 35 percent.
In conclusion the survey report said none of the national leaders on the world stage inspire wide confidence.
Nearly 20,000 people were polled in countries representing 60 per cent of the world’s population. The survey was conducted between January and May, with a 2-4 percent margin of error.
WorldPublicOpinion.org is managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland