More than 61% of all persons interviewed in a recent Jamaica Observer-commissioned poll felt that things in the country are going in the wrong direction.

This compared to 24% of respondents who held the opposite view when they were asked whether they felt that things in Jamaica are going in the right direction or in the wrong direction.

The poll, conducted by Don Anderson and his team from Market Research Services Limited, interviewed a total of 1,117 registered voters aged 18 years and over in 84 communities islandwide over the period May 30 to June 4, 2007.

The margin of error was plus or minus 3%.

“The number of persons who feel that things in the country are going in the wrong direction has remained particularly high over all polls conducted by Don Anderson and his team over the last 12 months,” the pollsters said in their analysis of the findings.

Anderson said that when they asked those surveyed to indicate what factors account for this negative view of the way things are going, a number of key issues were highlighted. They were:

. Lack of employment/businesses closing down – 35%

. Increase in crime and violence – 30%

. Poor performance by the Government – 24%

. A stagnant economy/high cost of living – 20%

. Lack of proper infrastructure – 8%

. Corruption – 5.4%

. The high cost of school fees – 5%

. Lack of opportunity for youth – 3%

. Injustice in the society – 2%.

Said Anderson: “Persons who held this negative view were primarily younger, under 29 years old and from the upper socio- economic groups.”

The 24% of persons who said they felt that the country was going in the right direction gave as their reasons:

. Government doing the best job possible – 38%

. Proper infrastructure is in place – 21%

. Government is improving the country – 14%

. There has been improvement in education – 11%

. The Government’s announcement of free health care for children – 10%

. More job creation – 7%

. Improvement in the transportation system – 2%.

“Persons who generally felt upbeat about the way the country is going were older and more low income,” said Anderson.

Communities divided on how things going in their area

Question: Generally speaking, do you feel that things in your area are going in the right direction or in the wrong direction?

According to Anderson, communities are more positive about the way things are going in their area, a view that contrasts starkly with that held of the way things are going in the country at large.

“Whereas views of the way things are going in the country were generally negative, the same persons, when asked how things were going in their own area, were more ambivalent,” said Anderson.

46.6% of all persons interviewed expressed the view that things are going in the right direction, compared to 45.8%, roughly the same number who view things as going in the wrong direction.

Anderson said that previous polls conducted by his team have clearly indicated that residents view issues to do with the country differently from how they view issues to do with their own community.

“In a May poll conducted for CVM-TV, the key concerns nationally were identified to be crime and violence and unemployment,” said Anderson. “At the community level, however, the focus was on job opportunities/unemployment and the fixing of roads. Crime and violence did not appear as a significant factor at the community level.

“The difference in focus could very well explain why in a general way people felt that things were going in the wrong direction, whereas within their own community they were more positive.”

Government gets positive rating

The majority of persons who were interviewed feel that the Government’s performance can be rated positively, the pollsters said.

According to Anderson, when the question: ‘Which of the following statements would you say best describes how you feel about the performance to date of this PNP administration under Portia Simpson Miller?’ was asked of the 1,117 registered voters interviewed, 17.5% said that the Government has been doing a very good job.

“This, coupled with the view held by another 38% that the Government’s performance can be rated as good, contributes to an overall positive rating of some 55% for the way in which the Government has been handling the affairs of the state,” said Anderson.

“Persons who were particularly supportive of the performance of the Government were older persons in the over 40 age group, as well as persons in the lower middle and low income groups. There is a kind of parallel in this profile with those who mainly feel that the country is going in the right direction, suggesting that a fair degree of the support for the Government is coming from these sectors. Support is also stronger amongst females as compared to males.

“Against this background of the positive rating for the Government’s performance, 25% of all persons feel that the Government’s performance deserves a negative rating with 12.5% considering Government’s performance to be very poor. No particular segment of the population stands out in this regard, and this view, relatively small as it is, is spread across all the various demographic groups interviewed,” said Anderson.

Performance of Opposition JLP also viewed positively

The Anderson team also said they found that more persons have a positive view of the performance of the Opposition JLP than those who view the party’s performance negatively.

When the question: ‘Which of the following statements would you say best describes how you feel about the performance to date of this JLP administration under Bruce Golding?’ was asked of the 1,117 registered voters surveyed, 14.7% said that the Golding-led administration of the JLP is doing a very good job.

“Added to this is another 31.6% who rated the performance as being good for a combined positive rating of some 46% for the JLP,” said Anderson. “This is, however, to be compared to the 55% who had a positive view of the performance of the PNP under Portia Simpson Miller. Those classically who felt that the JLP was performing creditably were males, younger persons and persons from the upper socio-economic group, which the current poll has established represents the key support elements for the party.”

Anderson said that it was interesting to note that whereas in the case of the PNP the incidence of persons who said they did not know was 20%, more than 25%, in the case of the JLP, felt that they could not comment on the performance of the Bruce Golding-led party, suggesting that they might have had some difficulty identifying key factors against which to judge the performance of the Opposition. “This is understandable and has been classically the case for parties in opposition,” said Anderson.

“Against the background of the positives that people tend to associate with the performance of the JLP, just over 30% rated the performance as less than good; 15% felt that the Bruce Golding-led administration was doing a bad job, with another 7% saying that they were doing a very bad job. Combined then, just over 22% rated the performance of the JLP negatively.