The Government is staring down the barrel of a trust deficit among the populace as a plurality of Jamaicans polled have indicated that they distrust the Andrew Holness Administration.

However, researchers have also found that while pessimism about the direction of the country remains high, the number of citizens who believe Jamaica is going in the right direction is climbing.

The findings of the latest Nationwide/Bluedot Polls were revealed by Nationwide News Network on Monday after researchers returned from the field where they surveyed 1,294 Jamaicans islandwide between August 18 and September 7, 2023.

The poll, Bluedot said, has a margin of error of 2.75 per cent.

According to the pollsters, trust in the Government has fallen since their last survey in February 2023.

“In the six months that have elapsed since the last edition of these polls, the population’s distrust of the Government has risen from 52 per cent in February to 57 per cent in September,” the pollsters said.

There was a commensurate six per cent decline in the number of Jamaicans who indicated that they trust the Government, stepping down from 40 per cent in February to 34 per cent in September.

“Of those indicating trust in the current Administration, the majority (25 per cent) said they trusted the Government somewhat,” the Bluedot pollsters said.

Meanwhile, the researchers stated that when they sought respondents’ views on whether the country is going in the right or wrong direction, 28 per cent said the right direction.

“This is up by seven per cent compared to six months ago and one year ago when only 21 per cent shared the view,” the pollsters said.

At the same time, they found that 41 per cent of respondents said the country was heading in the wrong direction, a decrease of six percentage points compared to those who held the same view in February 2023.

According to the pollsters, “After a significant fall-off in optimism during the COVID-19 pandemic, when those who opined that the country was off track climbed from 26 per cent in September 2021 to 41 per cent in September 2022 and then to 47 per cent earlier this year, the proportion of Jamaicans who agree that the country is headed the wrong way has stepped down to levels seen a year ago. This closes the gap to 13 per cent down from 20 per cent though pessimism remains ahead.”

The Nationwide/Bluedot Polls are powered by Total Tools courtesy of Nationwide 90FM.