PNP now ahead of JLP, poll finds

A Don Anderson Poll Commissioned by the People's National Party (PNP) has found that if an election were called today 30.2 per cent of Jamaicans would vote for the PNP, while 25 per cent would vote for the Jamaica Labour Party.

The voter support has increased over February 2023 when it was 28.1 per cent and July 2022 when it was 18 per cent.

The poll's margin of error is plus or minus three per cent. 

At that same time, 44.8 per cent have not yet decided or say they will not be voting, an increase of 0.8 per cent over February and down from 51 per cent in July 2022.

The party, in a press conference on Tuesday at its Old Hope Road headquarters, presented the findings to the public. PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell told journalists that the poll was conducted between June 8 and 14 and had a sample size of 1,012 people.

“The first question that is normally asked in these polls is whether the people of the country feel that the country is moving in the right or wrong direction. And when this question was put to the people of the country, we found that 15.6 per cent of the person said that country is moving in the right direction. This is a decrease of 2.9 per cent from the poll that was conducted in February of this year,” Campbell, who led the slide presentation, told the meeting which was also virtual.

“Fifty-three point three per cent of the persons that were polled are of the opinion that the country is going in the wrong direction. I think that's a very significant figure, one, it is more than 50 per cent, so it's an absolute majority, and two, it is more than three times the number of persons who are of the opinion that it is going in the right direction,” Campbell said.

“So an overwhelming majority of persons are of the impression that the country is moving in the wrong direction,” Campbell concluded from the polls.

A number of reasons were offered by the respondents for their perception.

At the top of the list is the high cost of living, which is at 69 per cent, and lack of job opportunities/unemployment which has 48 per cent. Nearly 40 per cent  believe that increasing corruption is one of the issues sending the country in the wrong direction and a similar percentage believe that poor political leadership is the cause.

Seventeen per cent believe that the continuous brain drain and persons migrating is another cause, and a similar percentage believe that a lack of trust in private and public businesses is to be blamed.
At least 12 questions were asked by Anderson across various age groups.

- Erica Virtue

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