A sur­vey by the ANSA McAL Psy­cho­log­i­cal Re­search Cen­tre at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine, shows the ma­jor­i­ty of con­stituents in Ch­agua­nas West will be se­lect­ing their next MP in three days based on the in­di­vid­ual and not the po­lit­i­cal par­ty the per­son rep­re­sents.The sur­vey, which took place dur­ing the pe­ri­od Ju­ly 19-21, as­sessed pop­u­lar opin­ion in the con­stituen­cy on Mon­day's by-elec­tion.

The re­search cen­tre used a ran­dom sam­ple of 526 res­i­dents com­prised of six per cent Afro-Trinida­di­ans, 90 per cent In­do-Trinida­di­ans and four per cent mixed peo­ple.The sam­ple con­sist­ed of 48 per cent fe­males and 52 per cent males. Face-to-face in­ter­views were con­duct­ed. The mar­gin of er­ror is plus or mi­nus four per cent and the poll was su­per­vised by Dr Derek Chadee, di­rec­tor, ANSA McAL Psy­cho­log­i­cal Re­search Cen­tre.

The re­sults showed that 45 per cent of peo­ple sur­veyed will vote based on the in­di­vid­ual rep­re­sen­ta­tive, while 37 per cent will base their vot­ing de­ci­sion ac­cord­ing to the can­di­date cho­sen by their po­lit­i­cal par­ty.While sev­en per cent of res­i­dents polled in­di­cat­ed that they would not be vot­ing, six per cent said they would vote based on a com­bi­na­tion of par­ty and in­di­vid­ual and five per cent would not base their choice on ei­ther rea­son.

Of the re­spon­dents who chose to vote based on the in­di­vid­ual, 61 per cent were mixed, 45 per cent were In­do-Trinida­di­an and 25 per cent were Afro-Trinida­di­an.

The poll showed that equal pro­por­tions of In­do-Trinida­di­ans and Afro-Trinida­di­ans stat­ed that they would vote for a "po­lit­i­cal par­ty," with 38 per cent In­do-Trinida­di­an, 38 per cent Afro-Trinida­di­ans and 17 per cent mixed re­spon­dents giv­ing this re­sponse. The re­sponse "both" was giv­en by 11 per cent mixed, six per cent In­do-Trinida­di­an and three per cent Afro-Trinida­di­ans re­spon­dents.

Afro-Trinida­di­ans stat­ed they were vot­ing for nei­ther an in­di­vid­ual nor a po­lit­i­cal par­ty. Specif­i­cal­ly, 12 per cent Afro-Trinida­di­ans, four per cent In­do-Trinida­di­ans and ze­ro per cent mixed re­spon­dents stat­ed "none."Of the re­main­ing re­spon­dents, 22 per cent Afro-Trinida­di­ans, 11 per cent mixed and sev­en per cent In­do-Trinida­di­ans in­di­cat­ed they were "not vot­ing" in the Ch­agua­nas West elec­tion.

The poll showed that the pro­por­tions of male and fe­male re­spon­dents who in­di­cat­ed that they would vote for an "in­di­vid­ual" in the Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion was sim­i­lar, with 46 per cent fe­males and 44 male males giv­ing this re­sponse.Equal pro­por­tions of males and fe­males, six per cent, stat­ed that they were vot­ing for "both" while fe­male res­i­dents, 33 per cent, were less like­ly than males, 40 per cent, to in­di­cate that they were vot­ing for a "po­lit­i­cal par­ty."

When asked if they are vot­ing for an in­di­vid­ual or a po­lit­i­cal par­ty, five per cent male and five per cent fe­male re­spon­dents in­di­cat­ed that they were vot­ing for "none."The poll al­so showed that women in Ch­agua­nas West were more like­ly to ab­stain from vot­ing, with ten per cent choos­ing that op­tion as com­pared to five per cent of their male coun­ter­part.The poll al­so showed that younger peo­ple were more like­ly to vote than the old­er gen­er­a­tion.

Re­spon­dents 18-30 years old were least like­ly to in­di­cate that they were "not vot­ing," with four per cent of re­spon­dents 18-30 years old, eight per cent in the 31-40 age group, eight per cent in the 41-50 age group, and nine per cent of peo­ple 51 years and old­er giv­ing this re­sponse.Of the peo­ple who in­di­cat­ed that they would be vot­ing based on the in­di­vid­ual can­di­date, 47 per cent were 18-30 years old; 52 per cent 31-40; 46 per cent 41-50 and 39 per cent of re­spon­dents 51 years and old­er.

The age break­down of res­i­dents vot­ing based on po­lit­i­cal par­ty showed 37 per cent were 18-30 years, 29 per cent 31-40, 37 per cent 41-50 and 41 per cent of re­spon­dents 51 years and old­er.Re­spon­dents in­di­cat­ing that they were vot­ing for "both" were sev­en per cent of the 18-30 age group, sev­en per cent of the 31-40, four per cent of the 41-50 and six per cent of the 51 years and over age group.

The poll showed that sim­i­lar pro­por­tions of each age group in­di­cat­ed that they were vot­ing based on "none" in the Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion. Specif­i­cal­ly, five per cent of those 18-30 years old, four per cent 31-40, five per cent 41-50, and five per cent of per­sons 51 years and old­er gave this re­sponse.The poll al­so showed that re­spon­ders with high­er lev­els of ed­u­ca­tion were more like­ly to vote based on the in­di­vid­ual can­di­dates.

It showed that 62 per cent ter­tiary, 43 per cent sec­ondary, 42 per cent pri­ma­ry, and 38 per cent tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple would vote based on in­di­vid­ual. Cor­re­spond­ing­ly, ter­tiary ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple were least like­ly to state "po­lit­i­cal par­ty," with 43 per cent tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al, 40 per cent pri­ma­ry, 39 per cent sec­ondary, and 18 per cent ter­tiary ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple gave this re­sponse.

The re­sponse of "both" was stat­ed by ten per cent ter­tiary, sev­en per cent tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al, five per cent sec­ondary and five per cent pri­ma­ry ed­u­cat­ed re­spon­dents.Sec­ondary ed­u­cat­ed re­spon­dents were least like­ly to say they were vot­ing for nei­ther an in­di­vid­ual nor a po­lit­i­cal par­ty. Specif­i­cal­ly, sev­en per cent tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al, six per cent pri­ma­ry, six per cent ter­tiary, and three per cent sec­ondary ed­u­cat­ed re­spon­dents gave this re­sponse.

Of the re­main­ing re­spon­dents, ten per cent sec­ondary, sev­en per cent pri­ma­ry, five per cent tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al and four per cent ter­tiary ed­u­cat­ed re­spon­dents in­di­cat­ed they were "not vot­ing" in the Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion.