News

THE POLLING EXPERTS have spoken — an increasing number of Barbadians prefer the Barbados Labour Party over the Democratic Labour Party to run the country’s affairs.

Additionally, it showed that on the issue of leadership, Barbadians prefer Owen Arthur over David Thompson two to one.

A series of constituency polls commissioned by the BLP and conducted by the Cave Hill Associates Polling Organisation (CHAPO), a group of pollsters whose finding across the Caribbean have proven to be remarkably accurate, contradicts another done for the Nation newspaper by local pollster Peter Wickham.

The CHAPO polls each sampled 600 voters in 14 constituencies identified as battleground ridings, based on election results over 25 years, compared to Wickham’s 30 persons polled per constituency.

According to Deputy Prime Minister and St. Michael North East candidate Mia Mottley, this approach makes the CHAPO poll significantly more reliable than the Wickham formula.

Of the 14 constituencies polled, the BLP leads in nine, there is a statistical dead heat in three and the Bees are behind in two. The CHAPO poll ignored constituencies like St. John and St. Peter where there is less doubt about the outcome. Just two nights ago political scientist Dr. George Bell at Cave Hill reported that there had been a “swing back to the Government”.

“What we are seeing now is that during the campaign there is a swing back to the Government,” he said. The complete results of the CHAPO poll are expected to be released to the public this weekend.