DATA from in the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) independent strategic review showed that the man who was most likely to challenge party leader Andrew Holness for the top job was its foreign affairs spokesman, Dr Christopher Tufton.

However, the data showed that Holness had an almost 50 per cent lead over Tufton in the two areas which the Independent Strategic Review Commission sought answers from a poll conducted by the UWI’s Centre for Leadership and Governance (CLG).

Nowhere did the figures point to the possibility of a challenge from Finance Spokesman Audley Shaw, the man who will seek to depose Holness at next Sunday’s annual conference of the party at the National Arena.

The research/poll sought responses on who was seen as the future leader of the JLP by (1) supporters of both the JLP and the People’s National Party (PNP); and (2) JLP supporters, solely.

In both polls, Holness ended up with 60 per cent, compared to Tufton’s 10.7 per cent, with “Other”, which should include Shaw, registering 8.9 per cent and “No Answer” at 20.3 per cent.

According to the Independent Strategic Commission, leadership was a major theme that emerged throughout the entire data collection process.

“One aspect of leadership which was of particular interest to many of the participants was ‘party leadership’ (The Leadership of the Party),” the commission’s report said.

“The dataset provided by the CLG had several interesting questions on party leadership, which were pertinent to the commission’s remit. One particular question that was of interest to us in this regard, sought to ascertain how Jamaicans perceived the future leadership of the JLP – ‘Looking to the future, who do you believe should lead the JLP in the next general election?’

“We were specifically interested in two groups of people. First, persons who responded to this question and who either supported the JLP or the PNP in the last general election and responded to this question. They represented 79.7 per cent of the total population or 1,206 participants. This was ‘Group 1’,” said the report.

“We were also interested in the views of those persons who supported the Jamaica Labour Party in the last election. This was ‘Group 2’. They represented approximately 26.8 per cent of the total sample or 406 respondents.

“In both instances, there is an overwhelming support for Andrew Holness as the future leader of the Jamaica Labour Party,” the report said.

“Based on these findings, we further explored the strengths and weaknesses of Andrew Holness as a leader. Again we looked at two different groups of people. The first group – Group A – represents the total sample while the second group – Group B – represents those persons who supported the Jamaica Labour Party in the 2011 General Election,” the report said.