Publish 10 April 2017

BASSETERRE, St Kitts — The latest Don Anderson poll shows that, if an election were to be held now, Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris and his government of national unity would be re-elected to serve for another five-year term in St Kitts and Nevis.

What’s more, according to the poll, the current administration would expand its constituency count, adding to the seven seats that its candidates won at the February 16, 2015, general election.

The privately commissioned poll was conducted among 506 registered voters in all 11 of the constituencies in the Federation during March 2017.

Presenting findings of the poll on Saturday in St Kitts, Anderson said, “We were able to get information from a range of demographic persons; in other words, by gender, by age, by socioeconomic group and by constituency as well.”

The pollster from Jamaica, who established his firm Market Research Services Limited in 1975, also said, “From a constituency perspective, Team Unity is well positioned – if an election should be called now – to be re-elected, having improved their 2015 election constituency count based on the intention to vote measure.”

Speaking on Saturday, Anderson added: “Let me break that down a little bit more. Every time one does a poll during the course of a five-year span from one election to the next, we ask a question: ‘If an election were to be called now, who are you likely to vote for?’ and, generally, you find that the further away you are from an election date or a constitutionally due election date, the higher the number of people who say ‘I’m not sure or I don’t know.’”

Anderson continued: “In this particular situation, we found those numbers [persons saying they are not sure or that they do not know who they would vote for] a little lower than normal, which means that people are energized in the whole election process or political process.”

The pollster went on to say: “In the context of Caribbean polls, this is good!”

He explained: “Right now, we are almost at midterm. In another few months, we will be at midterm, and to be in a position of comfort, relative comfort, midterm is a little bit different. It’s not usual because in everywhere that we have worked – and we are talking about almost right through the Caribbean – midterm governments tend to be lagging behind.”

Anderson noted, “In this particular situation, we find Team Unity has actually done a good job in the eyes of the general public, to be so positioned that people say they would vote them in for a second term.”

Notably, Anderson correctly predicted the outcome of the last general election in St Kitts and Nevis based on polls that he conducted prior to the ballot.

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