Charlie Neibergall/The Associated PressA new global poll shows 50 percent of foreign respondents favoring President Barack Obama in the upcoming election. Nine percent prefer Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger.

BBC poll: Rest of world favours Obama

A BBC World Service opinion poll has found sharply higher overseas approval ratings for US President Barack Obama than Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

An average of 50% favoured Mr Obama, with 9% for Mr Romney, in the survey of 21,797 people in 21 countries.

Only Pakistan's respondents said they would prefer to see Mr Romney win November's election.

France was the most strongly pro-Obama (72%).

The survey was conducted by GlobeScan/PIPA between 3 July and 3 September.

A new survey of global opinions for the BBC World Serviceshows 20 of 21 countries favoring Mr. Obama. France, Australia, Canada, Nigeria and Britain went most heavily for Obama.

The only country surveyed with a Mitt Romney yard sign on its lawn was Pakistan, which favored the Republican challenger by 14 percent to 11 percent. (Three-fourths of Pakistani respondents had no preference.)

Elsewhere in Asia, Chinese respondents preferred Mr. Obama, 28 percent to 9 percent, as did South Koreans (58 to 9); Japanese (33 to 9); Indians (36 to 12); and Malaysians (28 to 13).

In Indonesia, where Mr. Obama spent four of his boyhood years, he was favored, 59 percent to 3 percent, over Mr. Romney.

“Overall, an average of 50 percent would prefer to see Obama elected, compared to only 9 percent who prefer Romney,” said the pollster, GlobeScan/PIPA. “The rest express no preference between the two.”

“While the presidential race in America looks like going down to the wire, global public opinion appears to be firmly behind Barack Obama’s re-election — even if two in five express no preference between the two candidates,” said Sam Mountford, GlobeScan director of global insights.

“Obama’s election in 2008 led to a major recovery of America’s image in the world and people are showing little interest in changing horses now,” said Steven Kull, a PIPA director.

In the third and final presidential debate this week, Mr. Romney said that “unfortunately, in nowhere in the world is America’s influence greater today than it was four years ago.”

Saying that “America remains the one indispensable nation,” Mr. Obama countered that “our alliances have never been stronger — in Asia, in Europe, in Africa, with Israel where we have unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation, including dealing with the Iranian threat.”

Pakistan was a major focus of the debate, although the candidates seemed to largely agree on American policy there. Mr. Romney endorsed the killing of Osama bin Laden and the Obama administration’s increased use of drone strikes against suspected Taliban and Qaeda militants in the tribal areas.

The drone strikes are a divisive issue in Pakistani politics, and analysts drew a connection between the use of drones and strained relations with Washington.

In an article Wednesday in the Express Tribune newspaper in Karachi, Pakistan, Raza Rumi, one of the paper’s columnists, was quoted about bilateral relations and the upcoming U.S. election:

Wanting to be America’s front-line state, expect military and civilian aid, demand visas and scholarships for students and simultaneously create a bogey of U.S. enemy on the other hand is a path that has not worked well for the country.

It is time to make some tough choices. Pakistan can either decide to be independent, free itself of U.S. aid and reduce its engagement with America. Or it can take the alternative route of becoming friends and imbibing global values.

We unfortunately are completely split in the middle. Therefore, our understanding of the U.S. policy, our relationship with the U.S. and our expectation of either Romney or somebody else are completely off the mark.

The results of the BBC poll were featured on the Web site of Pakistan’s Defense Ministry.

A Press Trust of India story about the poll, carried on the Web site of Zee News, noted that Mr. Obama’s tenure “has coincided with one of the worst phases seen by U.S.-Pak ties and the poll clearly reflects the situation.”

“Issues like U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani territory, a NATO raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year, as well as the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden have seen the ties between the two countries plunge to an all-time low,” the article said.

A survey by the Pew Research Center during the summer found that three-fourths of Pakistani respondents described the United States as an “enemy.” Sixty percent expressed no confidence in Mr. Obama at the time, with just 7 percent confident in him (and 34 percent without an opinion).

Commenters on the Express Tribune story included Rex Minor, who said if Mr. Obama loses, the Pakistani government “shall have the opportunity to issue warrant of arrest” against him for “undertaking extra judicial killings in Pakistan territory without regard for Pakistan sovereign status.”

Another commenter, Ali S, said it “doesn’t really matter who wins as far as foreign policy is concerned. Any American president with a functioning brain would be tough on Pakistan, especially as far as drones are concerned.”

The poll results, methodology and questions can be foundhere.