PNP finding favour with more young people - poll

By Nakinskie Robinson   

 

Previous national polls have indicated that the opposition People's National Party has its strongest support base among older people, but according to pollster and head of Market Research Services, Don Anderson, the party has been finding favour with more young people.

 

In the most recent poll, which canvassed responses from 1,012 people, 36 per cent said they favoured the PNP's Mark Golding while 32.5 per cent favoured the governing Jamaica Labour Party's Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

 

Mr. Anderson said a demographic analysis revealed that the PNP has widened its group of supporters but has not lost the support of its core base. 

 

"The People's National Party still has the kind of support amongst the older population, but what we found is probably making the real difference is that more and more young persons were embracing the rating for Mark Golding rather than Andrew Holness,' said the pollster. 

 

The recent favourability poll reflected a shift in sentiment, with more respondents saying they were in favour of the Opposition Leader, compared with the Prime Minister.

 

When asked about the impact of the controversy surrounding the Prime Minister's financial affairs, Mr. Anderson said while it may have played a role in the shift, Mr. Golding has steadily been gaining in favourability among the voting public in recent months. 

 

"From the beginning of 2024, rather from the latter part of 2023, we could see the favourability rating of Andrew Holness growing less and less and in fact Mark Golding, as he became more and more known, his rating is becoming a little higher," he said, but admitted the poll "didn't measure  anything to do with the Integrity Commission's report and therefore we have no idea how much that impacted the situation".