Some Jamaicans think delay of South Trelawny by-election is a political ploy - poll

  

Some Jamaicans have labelled as political gimmickry, the government's delay in announcing a by-election for the South Trelawny constituency despite it being without a member of Parliament for some time.

 

When prompted in a recent national poll, conducted by Don Anderson, 32 per cent of the 1,012 respondents said the decision to hold a constituency poll in North East St. Ann but none for South Trelawny represents political gamesmanship by the governing Jamaica Labour Party.

 

South Trelawny has been without a member of Parliament for more than a year, while the North East St. Ann seat, which became vacant in early September after the JLP's Marsha Smith resigned, was filled after Mathew Samuda secured a landslide victory for the party in the September 30 by-election.

 

Still, 39 per cent of persons polled said they are not sure why an election was called for one constituency and not the other.

 

Another 19.7 per cent believe the decision not to announce a by-election in South Trelawny is being fuelled by political uncertainty, while 9.4 per cent expressed the view that the move is a good political strategy.

 

Mr. Anderson provided a cross analysis of the responses with the political alignment of respondents. 

 

Of those who said they would vote for the People's National Paty (PNP), 42 per cent felt the government's move was political gimmickry; 36 per cent said they weren't sure of the reasons for the delay and why the North East St. Ann by-election was called so quickly; 18 per cent said it was because the government is not sure how the voters would actually select which candidate they would select; and 4 per cent thought it was political strategy.

 

Mr. Anderson noted that the sentiments expressed by PNP supporters are similar to those of Jamaica Labour Party supporters. 

 

Of the JLP supporters, 33 per cent said they did not know the reason the government called the North East St. Ann by-election so quickly but hadn't called one in South Trelawny for a year. 

 

Twenty-four per cent thought it was because the government is unsure of how voters are going to decide on election day in South Trelawny; 20 per cent said it was a good political strategy; while 22 per cent said it was political gamesmanship. 

 

The survey was done between September 27 and October 3, and has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.

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