Least-trusted leaders named
2008-06-17 07:34
Washington - US President George W
Bush is ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and
Iran as one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey
released on Monday showed.
The survey, carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org in 20
countries around the world, found that no national leaders
inspired wide confidence outside their own countries. But Bush,
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranked at the bottom, the polling showed.
Only 23% of people outside the United States had "a
lot or some" confidence in Bush, compared to 22% for
Ahmadinejad and 18% for Musharraf.
The leaders of other countries fared little better. Only 26%
had confidence in French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 28%
in Chinese President Hu Jintao, 30% in British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and 32% in Russian President
Vladimir Putin, who has since become prime minister.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had the highest
confidence levels, at 35%.
"While the worldwide mistrust of George Bush has created a
global leadership vacuum, no alternative leader has stepped
into the breach," said Steven Kull, director of
WorldPublicOpinion.org.
"Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin are
popular among some nations, but more mistrust them than trust
them."
WorldPublicOpinion.org is a project involving research
centres around the world and is managed by the Program on
International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.
The group polled 19 751 people in nations that represent 60%
of the world's population. The survey was conducted
between January 10 and May 6, with margins of error of plus or
minus two to four percent.