A Louis Bertrand poll of the Tunapuna constituency commissioned by Guardian Media Limited shows the constituency could be trending back to the People’s National Movement (PNM) for the upcoming general election.
According to the results of the poll, a third of potential voters have yet to decide whether to participate, and the leaders of the PNM and People’s Partnership (PP) are close in terms of personal approval rating, with 35 per cent approving of Kamla Persad-Bissessar to hold the office of Prime Minister and 36 per cent favouring Dr Rowley, a statistically insignificant lead.
However, the percentage gap leaps to 12 points in Rowley’s favour when those who rate the leaders’ prospects for PM as “acceptable with reservations” are factored in.
Approval of the performance of Persad-Bissessar as Prime Minister and Rowley as Leader of the Opposition (62 per cent) shows that Rowley has moved ahead in terms of approval rating (50 per cent).
Rowley has never served in the capacity of prime minister and Persad-Bissessar is completing her first five-year term.
About 300 adults were interviewed in the marginal constituency, now represented by Government MP Winston Dookeran.
Tunapuna electors are, however, sceptical about the two major parties’ ability to effectively solve the major problems affecting them, which include crime, unemployment, corruption, health care and rising prices.
The findings reveal that “for all issues but healthcare, the (Rowley-led) PNM is seen as best able among those who named a political party.”
Another interesting finding of the poll was that 67 per cent of those interviewed were likely to vote in the general election, 14 per cent were unlikely to, and 19 per cent were undecided.
The Bertrand poll found that the electors in Tunapuna also “do not have a particularly good opinion” of their veteran MP, Foreign Affairs Minister Dookeran. It showed that as much as 54 per cent of electors in the constituency did not even know who their MP was. Of those who did, “27 per cent have a favourable opinion of him as an MP,” the poll said.
Up to 2007, the PNM had represented Tunapuna in Parliament. In that year, Dookeran became MP on a Congress of the People (COP) ticket. He was the leader of the then one-year-old party, which came to power as part of the People’s Partnership in 2010.
Rowley’s PNM has been the only party to approve a candidate for Tunapuna. He is Esmond Forde.
The People’s Partnership is expected to screen its candidate for Tunapuna and other constituencies after the election date has been announced.
The poll sought to find out whether, given its marginal nature, Tunapuna residents were largely partisan or non-partisan with respect to the main political parties.
To illuminate this issue, it asked those sampled if in general they leaned toward a particular party.
Fifty-five per cent admitted to favouring one party over the other. Of the 55 per cent who would admit to partisan leanings, a large majority favoured the PNM.
See full poll results at www.elections.tt