If voters were asked to elect the new leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the 39-year-old Andrew Holness would win in a landslide.
And if the just under 5,000 delegates elect the youthful Holness when they meet on November 19, the JLP could see a bounce in its support at the polls.
That is according to the findings of a just-completed Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll, which was done after Bruce Golding announced his intention to step down but before he signalled his desire to see a young person take over from him.
The pollster found that just under 50 per cent of Jamaicans believe that Holness, the three-term West Central St Andrew member of parliament and minister of education, is the right man to replace Golding as prime minister and leader of the JLP.
Almost the same number say they would be more likely to vote for the JLP if Holness were elected.
Other aspirants for the party’s top job – Dr Christopher Tufton, Dr Ken Baugh, Audley Shaw and Mike Henry – barely appear on the radar of the poll commissioned immediately after Golding announced his decision to step down.
The poll was conducted on Saturday, October 1, and Sunday, October 2, in 84 communities across the island’s 14 parishes. It has a sample size of 1,008 and a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent.
Forty-three per cent of the respondents named Holness as their first choice to replace Golding, with Tufton left far behind with nine per cent support. (Jamaica Gleaner)
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