8 out of 10 Costa Ricans believe president is not in control of country

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, nearly 14 months into her term, is far from being in control of the country, according to 78 percent of people surveyed in a Unimer poll published Sunday in the daily La Nación.

Only 14 percent of those surveyed said Chinchilla, the country’s first female president, holds the reins of the country.

Those polled also flayed the president in terms of her government’s rating, which has fallen abruptly in the past three months.

Twenty-six percent said Chinchilla’s work is good or very good, while 25 percent said it was bad or very bad. In March, those percentages were 37 and 19, respectively. Half of those surveyed said her work is barely average.

The survey indicated that Costa Ricans consider the country’s main problems to be bad roads, cost of living, poverty, and escalating insecurity. Unimer polled 1,202 people between June 15 and 22 for the survey.

The Chinchilla administration is faced with a growing deficit, which amounted to approximately 5 percent of gross domestic product at the close of 2010.

A tax reform bill proposed by the president was rejected by Congress, which has had an opposition majority since May 8.