THE PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) is considered the party best suited at the moment to run the country -- but only just.
This is one of the findings from a recent poll conducted on behalf of The Gleaner Company by Don Anderson and his team of researchers from Market Research Services Limited. The poll was conducted between September 4 and 11 and involved interviews among 1000 people 18 years and older islandwide. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 per cent.
Of the participants surveyed, 30.1 per cent felt that the incumbent PNP was the party best suited to run the country at this time. This is only marginally better than the 29.4 per cent who selected the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
This information is consistent with data presented elsewhere in this poll which ranks the parties equally in performance. It speaks to the very close rating of the parties and to the possibility of a close election should one be called soon.
Just 15.9 per cent see the National Democratic Movement (NDM) as the party of choice to lead the country at this time and it can be fairly concluded from all the data presented in this poll that the NDM does not currently have a strong body of support.
Support for the PNP comes primarily from men, older voters and people in low-income groups. Support for the JLP and the NDM tended to come from younger people. The NDM also appeared to have some good level of support from among people in upper-income groups.
