The find­ings of an opin­ion sur­vey con­duct­ed by NAC­TA over the last week show the in­cum­bent Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship (PP) Gov­ern­ment has lost sup­port while the PNM has man­aged to hold on to most of its sup­port, just a year af­ter the coali­tion won of­fice by a land­slide. How­ev­er, if an elec­tion were called now, while the PP is like­ly to lose sev­er­al seats, it will still re­tain of­fice though by a nar­row ma­jor­i­ty. Vot­ers do not see any threat to the Gov­ern­ment and they do not view the PNM as a vi­able al­ter­na­tive. The poll al­so shows Min­is­ters Jack Warn­er, Roodal Mooni­lal, Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh, and Vas­ant Bharath lead­ing their col­leagues in rat­ings for per­for­mance as well as in oth­er mea­sure­ments.

In a con­test for lead­er­ship of COP, in­cum­bent Win­ston Dook­er­an is pre­ferred by a huge mar­gin. The find­ings of the poll are ob­tained from in­ter­views with 740 re­spon­dents (45% In­di­ans, 36% Africans, 18% mixed, and 1% oth­ers) re­flect­ing the de­mo­graph­ics of the pop­u­la­tion. The poll, con­duct­ed over the last week by Vish­nu Bis­ram, has a four per cent mar­gin of er­ror. Asked which min­is­ter im­press­es the most with per­for­mance, Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er leads with 41%, fol­lowed by Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh with 19%, Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath with 16%, and Hous­ing Min­is­ter Roodal Mooni­lal with 13%.

Asked which min­is­ter or Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment has shown the most courage in tak­ing on the PNM Op­po­si­tion and de­fend­ing Gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sions, Warn­er leads with 33% fol­lowed close­ly by Mooni­lal with 30% and oth­ers trail­ing way be­hind. Asked which Min­is­ter or MP has best han­dled the weight of high pub­lic of­fice while re­main­ing fo­cused and ef­fec­tive, Warn­er again, leads with 35% fol­lowed by Ra­mad­hars­ingh with 17%, Bharath with 16% and Mooni­lal with 15%. Asked which min­is­ter ap­pears best able to de­liv­er on Gov­ern­ment promis­es, Warn­er leads with 38% fol­lowed by Ra­mad­hars­ingh with 15%. Which min­is­ter so far best rep­re­sents the ideals of the PP Gov­ern­ment? Warn­er leads with 29% fol­lowed by Ra­mad­hars­ingh and Bharath tied at 18%.

Asked if they think the Gov­ern­ment will last its full term, 49% said yes or hope it does last its full term as com­pared with 35% who said no or hope it does not last, with 16% not sure.

While there is dis­ap­point­ment among some sup­port­ers of the PP in the coali­tion's gov­er­nance, there is still a reser­voir of good­will for Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar with hope she will suc­ceed in im­ple­ment­ing the promis­es made dur­ing the cam­paign and do­ing things dif­fer­ent­ly from the PNM. Per­sad-Bisses­sar is cred­it­ed with hold­ing the coali­tion to­geth­er. If an elec­tion were called now, 41% said they will vote PP with PNM get­ting the nod from 31%. The rest are un­de­cid­ed or will not vote or want an al­ter­na­tive to the two par­ties. Us­ing the opin­ions from this week's sur­vey and ear­li­er NAC­TA polls to project the out­come of an elec­tion, the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) will on­ly be able to re­tain the St Au­gus­tine seat, los­ing the oth­ers to the PNM. And even in St Au­gus­tine, most UNC sup­port­ers are not pleased with rep­re­sen­ta­tion and ser­vic­ing of the con­stituen­cy-a re­cur­ring com­plaint about most of the con­stituen­cies.

The find­ings show sup­port for the COP has vir­tu­al­ly evap­o­rat­ed from a year ago. The UNC has al­so lost sup­port but not enough to lose tra­di­tion­al seats if an elec­tions were called now. Asked who they pre­fer for lead­er­ship of the COP, Win­ston Dook­er­an leads Anil Roberts 49% to 26% with the oth­ers not ex­press­ing an opin­ion. How­ev­er, very few among those who were polled have vot­ing rights in the COP and as such the find­ings do not re­flect the prospec­tive out­come of the lead­er­ship con­test.

Se­lect­ed NAC­TA polls

Which min­is­ter im­press­es the most with per­for­mance

Jack Warn­er 41

Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh 19

Vas­ant Bharath 16

Roodal Mooni­lal 13

Oth­ers/NS 11

Which min­is­ter shows the most courage to de­fend gov't

Jack Warn­er 33

Roodal 30

Anil Roberts 05

Tim Gopeesingh 03

Not Sure 29

Which min­is­ter best han­dles the weight of pub­lic of­fice

Jack Warn­er 34

Glenn 17

Vas­ant 16

Roodal 15

Oth­ers/NS 18

Which min­is­ter best able to de­liv­er on promis­es

Jack Warn­er 38

Glenn 14

Vas­ant 13

Roodal 11

Oth­ers/NS 24

Which min­is­ter best rep­re­sents the ideals of PP

Jack Warn­er 29

Glenn 18

Vas­ant 18

Roodal 13

Oth­ers/NS 22