KINGSTON, Jamaica — The People’s National Party (PNP) says it views the announcement of a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) commissioned opinion poll in South East St Mary claiming a 15 point lead for Dr Norman Dunn over the party’s Dr Shane Alexis as “patently ridiculous and way out of line with both the reality on the ground and the historical voting pattern of the constituency.”

The party said it believes the announced findings to be “fake” and designed to deceive the people of the constituency and the wider Jamaica into thinking that they are in an unassailable position. In a statement this afternoon, the PNP said it has been organising and canvassing on the ground in all communities in the constituency and has found that voter response is in total opposition to these poll findings both in terms of support for the candidate and the party leader.

According to the PNP, the so-called 15-point lead would place the constituency in the column of “safe seat for JLP” when in reality the PNP has won six of the last seven general election contests in South East St Mary and held it for twenty three of the last twenty seven years.

The party said if the JLP expects its polls to be taken seriously, there are important questions to be answered by them and their research group. These include explanation of the large sample size of 1,738 people and the distribution of the questionnaires across the four political divisions.

The PNP said that on the basis of the information presented so far, it seriously questions the reliability and integrity of the polling. The party asserts that it will not be deterred by this “blatant attempt at misinformation and will continue its work on the ground where there is a groundswell of support for the PNP and Dr Alexis”.