St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Latest poll numbers predict overwhelming victory for Gonsalves in the next election

Opposition leader Arnhim Eustace (l) and St. Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves (r)

The latest opinion polls indicate that ruling Unity Labor Party (ULP) of St. Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves would win the general election.

However, Gonsalves wants supporters to remember that opinion polls do not win general elections.

Gonsalves, who is seeking a fourth consecutive term in office at the next general election constitutionally due in 2015, told reporters that his administration still has many outstanding projects to undertake during the next few months.

“There are many items on the agenda. And, as you notice, we are not only talking. We are doing things,” he said.

The poll, conducted by the Barbados-based Caribbean Research Services Inc. (CADRES) during the month of October found that there was “overall positive support for the Gonsalves administration which is above the level that it received in the 2010 election”.

It said that voters still prefer Prime Minister Gonsalves by an almost two to one margin over Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace, the leader of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP). Sixty One percent of voters polled indicated that they would vote to re-elect Gonsalves.

In the 2010 general election, the ULP won eight of the 15 seats with the remaining 7 going to the NDP.

Eustace has already downplayed the findings of a poll saying that the ULP had conducted its own poll between July and September that showed the party being booted out of office. -(CMC)