The marginally higher support for Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller over Opposition Leader Bruce Golding remains unchanged since October, although the percentage of those who say that they don’t know who is the best person to run the country increased slightly, the latest Stone Poll has found.

At the same time, the pollsters said their December survey unearthed “an interesting paradox in opinions of the prime minister”.

“On the one hand, the electorate is somewhat less satisfied at the moment with how she is “doing her job” than with how Bruce Golding is doing his. Yet, more people see her as ‘the best person to be prime minister’, than Bruce Golding,” Stone said.

The poll, which was conducted December 8-10, using a representative sample of 1,504 eligible voters, has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.

According to the pollsters, both Simpson Miller’s and Golding’s job approval ratings have not changed significantly since the November poll.

When voters were asked who they believe is the best person to run the country, 35.2 per cent said Simpson Miller, compared with 31 per cent who favoured Golding. In October the figures were 34 per cent for Simpson Miller and 31.2 per cent for Golding.

However, the ranks of the persons who either said they did not know or who offered no response increased from 17 per cent in October to 22.7 per cent in December.

When the pollsters asked voters in the December survey to say whether they approve or disapprove of how Simpson Miller was doing her job, 36.8 per cent said they approved, compared with 34.4 per cent who gave a similar answer in October. Those who said they did not approve of how she was doing her job amounted to 39 per cent in December, against 40.5 per cent in October.

In Golding’s case, 42.2 per cent of respondents in the December poll gave him a favourable approval rating, compared with 39.7 per cent in October, while 33.5 per cent of respondents in the latest poll said they disapproved of how he was handling his job. In October, the figure was 34.9 per cent.

The pollsters said that despite the recent Trafigura affair, the declines in support for the PNP, and the intense questioning of the prime minister’s leadership in the Jamaican media, there is apparently a ‘teflon effect’ in her case – almost nothing seems to ‘stick’ to her.

“Personal charisma and continued popularity among a substantial percentage of the electorate, particularly among women, would appear to be insulating her from the heavier disapproval that the polls show the PNP has incurred as a party, and from the public’s lingering disillusionment over Trafigura,” Stone said.

The pollsters concluded that Simpson Miller’s lead over Golding was “due primarily to the fact that she is much more highly favoured by women”.

The Simpson Miller administration was badly damaged by the Trafigura affair which involved the transfer of $31 million from Dutch oil trader Trafigura into an account linked to the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) in September. The affair led to the resignation Simpson Miller’s information and development minister, Colin Campbell. Simpson Miller also ordered the money returned after Trafigura claimed it was payment on a commercial agreement and not a campaign donation as was stated by the PNP.

Tomorrow: Which party do voters feel would best run the country right now and the party standings.