Buoyed by the findings of a poll that it commissioned, the ‘Rise United’ team has declared that its leader Peter Bunting is the best bet to drive the People’s National Party (PNP) back into power.

But the ‘One PNP’ team, which is led by sitting party President Dr Peter Phillips, has scoffed at the Rise United poll findings as it argued that the data presented by that team was garbled, incomprehensible and out of line with its polling data.

The One PNP team further argued that its poll, which it will release later, shows a different result.

“In none of the answers provided to the questions did they account for 100 per cent of the sample size, which gave the distinct impression that the numbers were being selectively presented. This data makes no sense without knowing the size of the undecided elements,” said KD Knight, campaign chairman of the One PNP team.

The Rise United poll was conducted by pollster Don Anderson between July 20 and August 2, with a sample size of 750 eligible voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 per cent. The released results, which were rounded off to the nearest whole number, showed 100 per cent of those polled in two instances, and 101 per cent in two others.

In presenting the findings, Rise United Campaign Manager Dr Dayton Campbell said 39 per cent of respondents said the challenge for the leadership of the PNP by Bunting was a good idea, 23 per cent said it was not a good idea, while 38 per cent said they were not sure.

Campbell pointed out that 39 per cent of the respondents said Bunting was best suited to lead the PNP at this time. This was 18 percentage points above those who said Phillips, and more than double those who said neither.

According to the poll, Bunting, with 36 per cent, was also well ahead of Phillips, 16 per cent, as the person respondents believe would have the better chance of leading the PNP to victory over a Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in a general election.

The poll also found that if national election were to be called now, 30 per cent of the respondents would vote for the PNP, while 35 per cent would vote for the JLP.

Despite the party trailing in the race if elections were called now, this is the finding that has most excited the Rise United team.

“One of the things that we have been saying is that this challenge has also energised the base of the People’s National Party. It has given life to the movement,” said Campbell.

“When the question was asked previously in March…by Don Anderson, the People’s National Party was at 18 per cent and the Jamaica Labour Party was at 29 per cent, an 11 percentage point difference. That would have meant that we were facing not only a defeat, but possibly a landslide defeat,” Campbell argued.

“The People’s National Party has risen in the poll. The party has increased by more than 50 per cent in just a six-week campaign, so you can just imagine that by the time we get to conference we would have pulled ahead of the JLP if the momentum continues, which it will,” added Campbell as he argued that the two parties are in an almost statistical dead heat because of the campaign of the Rise United team.

But, in its response, the Phillips team said it would also have been critical to know the representative sample in terms of supporters of the PNP and the JLP, the demographic make-up of sample size, and the distribution of said size across population centre in the Rise United poll.

The One PNP campaign said, whereas it acknowledges the right of Rise United to highlight numbers to make its own case, it is important that delegates be warned of the convenience of the results presented.

One PNP campaign also rejected, in particular, the claim that the increase in PNP support by 12 percentage points over the past two months was entirely attributable to the work of the Bunting campaign.

According to Knight, any such claim had to be a farce, as Comrades from both campaigns had been active in the field over the same period.

Knight said in order to eliminate the possibility of this confusion taking root, the One PNP campaign would present details of its own poll findings by the end of this week.

Pollster Bill Johnson was in the field for the One PNP campaign between August 2 and 4, with a sample size of 1,000 respondents and a plus or minus 3.5 per cent error margin.

The One PNP campaign said its poll showed that if elections were called today 34 per cent of the electorate would vote for Holness, while 32 per cent would vote for Phillips. It added that 10 per cent of respondents were undecided, two per cent refused to answer, and 22 per cent would not vote.

According to the Phillips team, when Bunting was put as the Opposition leader 36 per cent of the respondents said they would vote for Holness if a general election was called now, 27 per cent said Bunting, while 12 per cent were undecided, two per cent refused to say who they would vote for, and 23 per cent said they were not voting.