BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The main opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is likely to win as many as 20 seats in Thursday’s general election, according to the latest opinion poll published here on Tuesday.

The poll by the Caribbean Development Research Services Inc (CADRES), shows that the BLP, lead by former prime minister Owen Arthur could win between 17 and 20 of the 30 seats to be contested in the general election.

It said that the incumbent Democratic Labour Party (DLP) headed by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart “will occupy the opposition benches with between 10 and 13 seats”.

Last weekend CADRES published a poll in which it said that voters had preferred Prime Minister Stuart to lead the country as against Arthur by a 39 to 36 per cent.

“On this occasion, Stuart’s approval rating has risen from 39 to 41 per cent while Arthur’s has remained constant at exactly 37 per cent. The disapproval rates for both leaders have increased marginally with Stuart’s moving from 40 to 41 per cent and Arthur’s moving from 38 to 41 per cent. In both instances the movement came from the uncommitted cohort which is somewhat smaller for both leaders.”

The DLP, which had been trailing the opposition for the past several months, had narrowed the gap to a statistical dead heat, according to the first poll released over the last weekend.