Tsunami crisis boosts Thaksin's popularity

Tsunami crisis boosts Thaksin's popularity

THAILAND: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's handling of Thailand's tidal wave disaster has boosted his popularity before elections next month, according to a poll released on Monday.

Some 54.1 percent said they are more satisfied with Thaksin compared with 23.6 percent whose opinion was unchanged and 10.3 percent who said they have a worse opinion of the premier, according to the poll by private university ABAC.

Around 12 percent of the 1,288 people interviewed between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 gave no opinion.

The figure compares with 48.1 percent who said they were more satisfied with Thaksin in an ABAC poll last September.

When asked to vote for Thailand's most popular individual or group, 61.7 percent picked prominent female forensic scientist Dr Porntip Rojanasunan, who has spent days trying to identify victims of the disaster which claimed at least 5,000 lives in Thailand. -- AFP