Approval - Afrobarometer

The good news for Bingu is that the apporval rate for him has jumped from 56% in 2005 to 83% in 2008.

According the survey Bingu’s approval rate in terms of a wide range of social and economic indicators in  2008 is higher than that of Muluzi in 2003. The interesting exception is with respect to water provision where Muluzi comes out better. The barometer authors interpret this thus: "This is significant in the sense that in all issues, the Mutharika Government’s ratings are significantly higher. This shows that people are able to spot differences. People perceive that the Mutharika Government has not matched the borehole drilling of the Muluzi era, but that Mutharika is otherwise running a far better government than Muluzi.”. It should be noted that in the North Mutharika does better even with respect to water.

The greatest gap between Muluzi and Bingu is over the economy, corruption and crime