An opin­ion poll on gov­er­nance con­duct­ed by the North Amer­i­can Caribbean Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (NAC­TA) last month, found wide­spread re­jec­tion among the pop­u­la­tion of both the PNM Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion UNC to man­age T&T’s af­fairs – but the PNM still found favour to gov­ern.

How­ev­er, re­spon­dents al­so felt “that an amal­ga­ma­tion of op­po­si­tion forces – like the for­ma­tion of the NAR in 1986 un­der a cred­i­ble, like­able leader – will sweep away the in­cum­bent PNM.”

The poll was con­duct­ed in March by Dr Vish­nu Bis­ram. The sam­ple of 550 adults in­ter­viewed in Trinidad was strat­i­fied to re­flect the de­mo­graph­ics of the pop­u­la­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to NAC­TA’s poll, both po­lit­i­cal par­ties “are ex­treme­ly un­pop­u­lar with un­prece­dent­ed low ap­proval rat­ings.”

“The Gov­ern­ment’s ap­proval rat­ing is at an all-time low of 31 per cent, with a dis­ap­proval of 52 per cent. The Op­po­si­tion’s rat­ing is not any bet­ter. On­ly 30 per cent ap­prove of the per­for­mance of the op­po­si­tion, with 51 per cent dis­ap­prov­ing it.

“A ma­jor­i­ty of vot­ers do not think that the cur­rent­ly con­sti­tut­ed UNC can de­feat the PNM in the next gen­er­al elec­tion.”

NAC­TA added, “Large ma­jori­ties of vot­ers said they aren’t pleased with the lead­er­ship and par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tion of ei­ther po­lit­i­cal par­ty.

How­ev­er, when asked if they have to choose be­tween the two par­ties to gov­ern them, the PNM will re­main in of­fice for an­oth­er term. Vot­ers do not view the cur­rent­ly con­sti­tut­ed UNC as a cred­i­ble al­ter­na­tive.

“Vot­ers said there is need for a cred­i­ble al­ter­na­tive to both par­ties and lament none is in the mak­ing.

“But re­spon­dents did say sev­er­al non-elect­ed po­lit­i­cal forces like Gary Grif­fith and Phillip Alexan­der are do­ing a bet­ter job hold­ing the Gov­ern­ment ac­count­able than the of­fi­cial Op­po­si­tion.”

NAC­TA not­ed, “A shock­ing find­ing was the grow­ing ac­cep­tance of Wat­son Duke’s PDP in Trinidad and his high pos­i­tive rat­ing of tra­di­tion­al sup­port­ers of both the PNM and UNC in Trinidad.”

Based on the find­ings, NAC­TA stat­ed Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has the nod of ap­proval for his per­for­mance of 37 per cent, a de­cline by 8 per cent from a sim­i­lar poll con­duct­ed last Au­gust.

“The PM’s dis­ap­proval rat­ing stands at 47 per cent, up by four per cent, with 16 per cent not of­fer­ing a rat­ing or giv­ing him a neu­tral rat­ing.

“Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ap­proval al­so saw a de­cline of sev­en per cent from Au­gust to 39 per cent and a dis­ap­proval of 46 per cent.”

NAC­TA’s sam­ple of those polled found that “on­ly a hand­ful of MPs have like­able rat­ings among the pop­u­la­tion, with Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, Roodal Mooni­lal and Sad­dam Ho­sein, among oth­ers, stand­ing out.”

On Gov­ern­ment’s side, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and Dr Nyan Gadsy-Dol­ly stand out for their min­is­te­r­i­al and par­lia­men­tary per­for­mance.

“Al­most every­one said crime is the most se­ri­ous prob­lem fac­ing T&T. Peo­ple live in fear even in day­light hours with 78 per cent say­ing they are dis­sat­is­fied with Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of crime. Large ma­jori­ties didn’t ap­prove of Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the econ­o­my and COVID. Sev­en­ty per cent were sup­port­ive of a COVID pan­dem­ic grant to help strug­gling house­holds. Sev­en­ty-two per cent was al­so crit­i­cal of Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the div­ing dis­as­ter that claimed four lives.”

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