President Bharrat Jagdeo remains the most popular leader nationally, according to a recent survey done by the Caribbean Development Research Services Inc (CADRES), which found that AFC leader Raphael Trotman is running a close second but potential PPP/C presidential candidate Donald Ramotar trails.
According to findings of a survey of 1,000 respondents who were asked to select their preferred leader, PNCR leader Robert Corbin ranked third; former PNCR Chairman Winston Murray was ranked the next highest overall, followed by Major General (R’td) Joe Singh and then Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud and AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan who received the same share of support.
Stabroek News has obtained details of the survey’s findings about leadership, which CADRES is scheduled to release in full today.
In addition to preferred leader, respondents were asked to rate each individual candidate— regardless of whether he/she was their choice of leader—on a scale ranging from 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst performance and 10 being the best performance. The results also indicate the ratings according to political party support.
In the “All Guyana” category, the survey found Trotman was rated higher (6.0) than Jagdeo (5.9), while Corbin and Murray both received the same overall rating (5.1) as did Ramjattan and Singh (4.6), followed by AFC Vice-Chair Sheila Holder and Persaud (4.2), PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar (3.7), Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran (3.5), WPA Co-leader Rupert Roopnaraine (3.4) and GAP leader Paul Hardy (2.7).
Among “uncertain voters,” Jagdeo received the highest rating (6.3), followed by Trotman (5.4), Corbin (4.9), Murray (4.8), Singh (4.6), Persaud (4.4) Ramjattan (4.3), Holder and Ramkarran (3.8), Ramotar (3.7), Roopnaraine (3.5) and Hardy (2.9).
For PPP supporters, the survey shows that behind Jagdeo (8.6), Persaud (6.0) was the next most popular leader, followed by Ramotar (5.4), Trotman (4.8), Singh (4.7), Ramkarran (4.5), Ramjattan (4.5), Murray (4.3), Corbin (3.9), Holder (3.7), Roopnaraine (3.4) and Hardy (3.0).
Among PNCR supporters, Corbin was rated highest (7.4), followed by Murray (6.4), Trotman (5.6), Singh (4.6), Holder (4.4), Ramjattan (4.2), Jagdeo (4.1), Roopnaraine (3.5), Persaud (3.1), Ramotar (2.8), Ramkarran (2.7) and Hardy (2.5).
AFC supporters rated Trotman highest (7.9), followed by Ramjattan (5.3), Murray (4.9), Holder (4.8), Singh (4.7), Jagdeo (4.6), Corbin (4.3), Roopnaraine and Persaud (3.3), Ramkarran (3.0), Ramotar (2.8) and Hardy (2.4).
Trotman is also rated highest (6.4) among other small party supporters, followed by Murray and Holder (5.5), Jagdeo (5.3), Corbin (5.1), Persaud (4.4), Singh (4.3), Ramjattan and Roopnaraine (4.2), Ramotar (3.6), Hardy (3.4) and Ramkarran (3.2).
CADRES has explained that it conducted the political opinion survey that covered all 10 administrative regions in March.
Approximately 1,000 Guyanese voters were randomly selected and interviewed and, according to CADRES, in each instance the sample was proportionate to the percentage of the population that actually lives in the respective administrative region. The margin of error associated with such a survey is +/- 5% and as a result the results could be said to be a “reasonable indicator” of public opinion in Guyana at the time it was conducted.
The PPP on Saturday described the poll as bogus and CADRES has since responded to this. (See letter on page 6.)
