The pre­lim­i­nary find­ings of an opin­ion poll be­ing con­duct­ed by North Amer­i­can Caribbean Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (Nac­ta) re­veal mixed views on the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the plot to as­sas­si­nate Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and min­is­te­r­i­al col­leagues. The poll is be­ing con­duct­ed by Vish­nu Bis­ram. While a ma­jor­i­ty of re­spon­dents say there was "some­thing brew­ing" and there was cred­i­bil­i­ty about the as­sas­si­na­tion plot, the find­ings show a na­tion large­ly di­vid­ed on the is­sue by po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion or race. Nac­ta said al­most every gov­ern­ment sup­port­er be­lieved there was a plot to kill the PM and min­is­ters and un­der­mine the Gov­ern­ment, while most Op­po­si­tion sup­port­ers were not con­vinced of such a plot.

Ini­tial­ly, a lot of peo­ple were skep­ti­cal that there was a plot against the PM and her col­leagues, Nac­ta said. And even now, most sup­port­ers of the Op­po­si­tion say that the Gov­ern­ment over­re­act­ed in ar­rest­ing peo­ple with­out cred­i­ble ev­i­dence, the find­ings show. Ac­cord­ing to Nac­ta, with the al­leged plot­ters be­ing held un­der de­ten­tion or­ders, how­ev­er, more and more peo­ple were com­ing around in­to be­liev­ing there was a se­ri­ous plot against the Gov­ern­ment and sup­port the ac­tions against plot­ters. Peo­ple felt the Gov­ern­ment should come for­ward with sol­id proof to sub­stan­ti­ate their claims of the se­ri­ous­ness of the plot. Some re­spon­dents, in­clud­ing mem­bers of the labour move­ment, felt the Gov­ern­ment might use the coup plot to jus­ti­fy ex­tend­ing the cur­rent state of emer­gency.

On the state of emer­gency, a ma­jor­i­ty said it should be sus­pend­ed so peo­ple could ex­hale and en­joy the hol­i­day and Car­ni­val sea­sons. Many felt the state of emer­gency had had a neg­a­tive ef­fect on the econ­o­my, cost­ing many peo­ple their jobs and or low­er­ing their in­come and their spend­ing abil­i­ty. Queried about their views on the uni­ty of the Gov­ern­ment in its han­dling of the coup plot, cur­few, state of emer­gency and oth­er re­cent mat­ters, peo­ple over­whelm­ing­ly say the Gov­ern­ment (cab­i­net and its MPs) has shown strong uni­ty. Sep­a­rate­ly, peo­ple were over­whelm­ing­ly sup­port­ive across the po­lit­i­cal di­vide of the PM's de­ci­sion to re­voke the cur­few. There were some, how­ev­er, who said they had no prob­lem liv­ing with a per­ma­nent cur­few in or­der to put a lid on crime, Nac­ta added.