Holness, Golding head list of most popular ministers and opposition spokespersons

 

Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader and Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness and Opposition Leader and People's National Party (PNP) president Mark Golding head the list for the most mentioned ministers and opposition spokespersons.

 

This was revealed in the the latest RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll. 

 

When respondents were asked if they could name five cabinet ministers, 52.7 per cent named Dr. Holness, while Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton was the second most named at 37.1 per cent.

 

Trailing just behind was Culture, Gender and Sport Minister Olivia Grange, with 30.9 per cent as well as Finance Minister Fayval Williams with 27.6 per cent of respondents being able to identify her as a cabinet minister. 

 

Rounding out the five most notable ministers for the JLP was Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie with 25.2 per cent.

 

Some 22.3 per cent could not name a cabinet minister. 

 

In his assessment, pollster Don Anderson explained some notable trends for the cabinet.

 

"Every time we do a succession kind of question, Tufton comes up right up at the top. We then move to Horace Chang, security minister. And you know what's interesting is that in previous studies we have done, security ministers and finance ministers don't get a high mention because in a way they're both considered a little negative," he pointed out.  

 

On the opposition side, there was also a strong showing for the PNP leader with 57.4 per cent of the 1,033 respondents naming Mark Golding. 

 

Retiring member of Parliament Lisa Hanna was the second most named at 36.1 per cent. Shadow energy minister Phillip Paulwell was named by 29.5 per cent of the surveyed population, while his finance counterpart Julian Robinson was named by 26.8 per cent.

 

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dr. Angela Brown Burke was the fifth most identified opposition member at 23.1 per cent. 

 

Of note is also the 26.4 per cent of respondents who did not know any member of the shadow cabinet. 

 

Mr. Anderson added that some prominent opposition spokesperson were notably less visible in this survey. 

 

"Again, I make the point nobody was prompted. Mark Golding and his spontaneous mention was higher than the spontaneous mention of Holness. It could be that we had more from which to choose in terms of the cabinet ministers and therefore more were prominent. We had mentions of people like Damion Crawford at 7 per cent, which is interesting because in general when we asked questions about succession, Damion Crawford would normally be in the top three," the pollster noted.