BRUCE Golding's revelation of what he termed "the mother of all scandals" may not have been a lethal missile according to The Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson polls.

But the majority of the persons polled believe Golding's revelation of confidential bank records was a public service. This is according to the polls conducted on October 28 and 29, which had a sample size of 1,008 persons spanning 84 communities across Jamaica's 14 parishes.

Responding to whether they approved of Mr. Golding's decision to reveal the confidential bank records which created the controversy, 40 per cent of the respondents said the Opposition Leader did the correct thing.

Some twenty nine per cent of respondents, however, disapproved of Mr. Golding's decision to reveal confidential bank records.

Interestingly, although Mr. Johnson and his team of researchers commenced the polls 25 days after the Trafigura affair broke, 21 per cent of the respondents had never heard of Trafigura, while 10 per cent had not made up their minds about whether Mr. Golding had done anything wrong.

The Trafigura affair came to light on October 3, when Mr. Golding led a JLP walkout of Parliament during a censure motion brought against Opposition member Karl Samuda, and convened a press conference.

The JLP leader presented bank documents to support the charge that the governing People's National Party (PNP) had received at least $31 million from Trafigura, a Dutch company contracted by the Jamaican Government to trade Nigerian oil on its behalf.

Nothing wrong

Despite suggestions of a kickback, the PNP said there was nothing wrong with the party receiving the money, which it called a donation. A.J. Nicholson, the party's legal adviser, said the matter was over unless it could be proven that some "hanky-panky" was involved. Days later, however, Colin Campbell, a key PNP figure who was a signatory to the account (CCOC) to which the Trafigura money was sent, was forced to resign as PNP general secretary and Information and Development Minister. His exit came after Trafigura said the money was part of a business arrangement.

When translated into political support coming out of the handling of the Trafigura affair, the majority of those interviewed (43 per cent) said Trafigura would not affect the way they vote.

Among those whose decision to vote has been affected by the Trafigura affair, more are leaning towards the JLP. In fact, twice as many persons say they are more likely to vote for the JLP (19 per cent) as opposed to the PNP (eight per cent) because of the way the matter has been handled by the respective parties. Two per cent of the respondents say they are now less likely to vote for the PNP.

Trafigura Poll

The Opposition Leader Bruce Golding was the person who brought the Trafigura controversy to the attention of the Jamaican public. He did this by revealing the confidential bank records of one of the parties that was involved. Do you approve or disapprove of the fact that Bruce Golding revealed confidential bank records in order to help create this controversy?

Approve