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Holness’ JLP surges ahead in the polls
Jamaica Prime Minister., Andrew Holness
The Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) and Prime Minister Andrew Holness have surged into the lead, gaining six percentage points in the past month, as the party and candidate most likely to win the December 29 general election.
The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) and Portia Simpson-Miller should not be counted out.
According to the latest Bill Johnson public-opinion poll conducted nation-wide on December 10 and 12, Johnson’s team found that if the election were held today, 31 percent of the voters would put their ‘X’ beside the bell, the symbol of the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), while a further 5 percent of the voters say they would probably vote JLP, giving the Holness-led JLP a solid 36 percent support.
For the PNP, 29 percent of voters say they would definitely put their ‘X’ beside its symbol, the head. A further 3 percent say they would probably vote for the PNP. That leaves the Simpson Miller-led party with 32 percent support or four percentage points behind the JLP.
With the poll having a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percent, the parties are in a statistical dead heat, but what should worry the PNP is that this is the first time it has trailed the JLP in any Johnson poll since 2007.
The PNP’s troubles are compounded by the fact that despite its campaigning over the past month, its support has remained at 32 percent, which the Johnson team found when it tested the pulse of the nation in November.
In the meantime, the JLP has seen its support move from 29 to 36 percent, a seven-percentage point gain since November.
