More than half of the 1,504 eligible voters questioned in the latest Stone Poll say that the country is headed in the wrong direction. But this view, according to the pollsters, has so far not redounded to the benefit of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

“It should be noted, though, that the apparent pessimism about the direction of the country has so far not had a significant pay-off for the JLP or Bruce Golding in terms of the proportion of those who say that the JLP would head it in the ‘right direction’ or vote for them,” said Stone.

The poll was conducted December 2-5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.

Stone said that when they asked voters to say whether the country was moving in the right or wrong direction, an overwhelming 53.2 per cent said the wrong direction, compared to 23.5 per cent who held the opposite view. A total of 23.3 per cent said they either did not know or gave no response .

In the December poll, Stone found that both parties were still in a dead heat in terms of voter support, with 31.0 per cent saying that they would vote for the PNP in the next general elections, compared to 30.3 per cent for the JLP.

Said Stone: “Despite the seemingly even match-up of both parties, the JLP might derive some encouragement from the slight increase in Golding’s job approval ratings since October, and from the findings that show most Jamaicans (53 per cent) think the country is headed in the ‘wrong direction’.

“Those who think that the country is headed in the wrong direction are much more likely to say that they would vote for the JLP than the PNP. On other hand, those who think that the country is going in the right direction are more likely to say that they would vote PNP.

“Concomitantly, it would appear that the more concerned people are about finding employment during the next 12 months or belong to the lowest socio-economic group, the more likely they are to say that they would vote JLP.”

Stone also said that the “neither/don’t know/no response” answers to the question “which person would best lead the country” (34 per cent), and to “which party would best lead the country” (38.7 per cent) are, in both cases, as high as the support levels for either of the candidates, or either of the parties.

“This represents over a third of the potential electorate who are ‘abstainers’ from the two-party system, and apparently unimpressed with either party’s political agenda,” said Stone. “Moreover, with respect to voting in the coming election, 22 per cent said they do not intend to vote, another 10 per cent gave no answer, and 13 per cent said they are undecided. That represents a total of 45 per cent of the potential electorate who appear to be not yet committed to voting for either JLP or PNP. Of course, these numbers could change once the election campaigning commences.”