Bangabandhu most popular leader among youth: survey

Young eligible voters rated Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman highest among past Bangladeshi presidents and prime ministers, according to the second round of the People's Election Pulse Survey (PEPS). Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina emerged as the leader with the highest proportion of zero-score ratings.

The survey, conducted by Innovision Consulting and presented today at the Bangladesh National Archives Auditorium in Dhaka, covered 10,413 eligible voters across all eight divisions, 64 districts, and 521 sampling units between September 2 and 15.

Respondents were asked to rate leaders across five bands: 100%, 71–99%, 50–70%, 1–49%, and 0%.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman received the highest 100% score from Gen Z -- 20.8 percent rated him at the top.

Among Generation Z eligible voters, Shaheed Ziaur Rahman followed with 15.5 percent, Khaleda Zia with 10.6 percent, Sheikh Hasina with 8.6 percent, and Hussain Muhammad Ershad with 4.4 percent.

Millennial respondents, however, placed Ziaur Rahman slightly ahead: 23.8 percent gave him a full score, followed closely by Bangabandhu at 22.9 percent. Khaleda Zia received 14.4 percent, Hasina 9.1 percent, and Ershad 5.1 percent.

In overall approval ratings, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman stood out as the two most popular leaders across generations. Nearly half of all respondents rated each of them above 70 percent, with their strongest support among voters aged 60 and above.

On the other end, Sheikh Hasina received the highest number of zero scores -- 21.6 percent of respondents gave her the lowest rating. Ershad followed with 13.7 percent, while Sheikh Mujibur Rahman received 8.8 percent. Khaleda Zia and Ziaur Rahman were rated lowest in this category, at 5.6 percent and 4.4 percent respectively.

The PEPS findings were discussed by Asif M Shahan, professor of development studies at Dhaka University; Fahim Mashroor, joint convener of Voice for Reform; Shafiqul Rahman, executive director of BRAIN; and Zyma Islam, senior reporter at The Daily Star. Md Rubaiyath Sarwar, managing director of Innovision Consulting and lead of the survey, presented the key findings of the report.

PEPS is a flagship initiative of Innovision, a Dhaka-based research and consulting firm that has worked in more than 22 countries over the past 17 years on projects related to social and economic development.