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Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his government's stocks are rising with a double-digit surge in their performance ratings as Jamaicans prepare to head to the polls.
These are the findings of the latest RJRGLEANER Don Anderson poll, done between July 23 to August 3.
Some 1,071 Jamaicans were asked to rate the Prime Minister and the government's performance from very poor to very good.
Most placed them in the good or very good category.
Pollster Don Anderson said, in the case of the government, that number was 57 per cent, a 19 per cent bump from February when a similar poll was done.
In February, nine per cent saw the government's performance as very poor and 16 per cent said it was poor, for a combined negative rating of 25 per cent.
For this latest poll, the government's combined negative rating has been reduced to 11.9 per cent.
In the previous poll, 37 per cent rated the government's performance as average, but that number has gone down to 31 per cent in the July poll.
Twenty-two per cent of respondents had rated the government's performance as good in February, compared to the current rating of 34 per cent - a difference of 12 percentage points.
There was also an improvement where 16 per cent of respondents gave the government very good ratings in the earlier this year, compared to 23 per cent in July.
This performance rating has been achieved at a time when the government has had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic consequences of the containment measures implemented.
The government was also facing corruption allegations, related to the Jamaica Moves/Market Me scandal, the Holland land scandal, Hollywell land scandal and the St. Ann Municipal Corporation irregularities.
Holness
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has seen a similar bounce in his performance rating.
According to Mr. Anderson, 65.2 per cent of respondents said he was doing a good or very good job, 24.6 per cent gave him an average rating, while 10.1 per cent said his performance was poor or very poor.
In February, Mr. Holness had received a negative rating of 23 per cent, an average rating of 28 per cent, 27 per cent giving him a good rating and 22 per cent rating his performance as very good (a combined 49 per cent positive rating).
Mr. Holness therefore saw double-digit improvement in his overall positive rating.
Mr. Anderson noted that the government and Mr. Holness are viewed as performing significantly better than the opposition leader and the opposition.
"The JLP and the Prime Minister, leader of the Jamaica labour Party, their stakes have gone up significanty, and therefore, if you're looking at this as an absolute measure of the performance of the two parties, then obviously, the JLP's performance has been better than the PNP's, substantially so," he pointed out.
Best performers
Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton's handling of the public health crisis caused by COVID-19 has impressed Jamaicans.
More than half of the RJRGLEANER Don Anderson poll respondents singled him out as the best performing minister.
He was also in the number one spot when the same question was asked in February, but with a significantly lower percentage support.
"The survey was done in the middle of COVID and the Minister of Health, Chris Tufton, was obviously quite visible during that period. And the data we have indicates that 59.1 per cent of all persons interviewed regarded him as the best performing minister because there's been a general perception that he and his team handled the COVID situation well."
Mr. Anderson said the 59.1 per cent rating can be compared to the 21 per cent rating he received in February - an improvement of 38 percentage points.
Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke was second best, followed by Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie.
Worst performers
Meanwhile, Daryl Vaz, Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, was named worst performing minister. He was followed by Audley Shaw, Dr. Horace Chang, Robert Montague and Desmond McKenzie.
Mr. Anderson noted that respondents were told to exclude Prime Minister Andrew Holness from their answers in the categories of best and worst ministers.
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