Barbados’ two main political parties are in a statistical dead heat ahead of Thursday’s general election with Barbadians giving the nod to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart over his main challenger, Owen Arthur, according to the latest opinion poll published on Sunday.
The poll by the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), published in the Sunday Sun newspaper however indicates that Arthur’s Barbados Labour Party (BLP) still hold a “slight edge” for control of the 30 seats in the parliament.
It said that the BLP had a 37 per cent favourable rating as against 34 per cent for the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) with 29 per cent of the voters either not giving an indication of how they will vote on Thursday or did not know which party would most likely win nationally.
The poll has a margin of error of minus or plus five per cent, indicated however that “the actual outcome of this election is therefore dependent on the behaviour of this “uncertain vote” adding that two possible scenarios emerge, which could be revealed in the new poll which is currently under way”.The poll found that Stuart, who headed the government after the death of then prime minister David Thompson in 2011, had a three per cent lead over Arthur, who is seeking to regain control of the government he lost in 2008.
According to the pollsters, Stuart is liked by 39 per cent of the electorate as compared with 36 per cent for Arthur.
The polls showed that the DLP had been able to narrow a six per cent lead the BLP enjoyed last September to a mere 3.4 per cent, meaning that Thursday’s general elction “is expected to go down to the wire”.
But CARDES is still predicting victory for the BLP and suggesting that despite the late surge by the ruling party, the marginal lead currently enjoyed by the BLP should be sufficient for it to produce the weakest of governments if the trend holds.
The poll conducted last weekend in all 30 constituencies, found that on the issue of whether this was the time for a change of government, 38.9 per cent said yes while 40.5 per cent said no with uncommitted, comprising of those who have not yet made up their minds or would not say which party they would be voting for, accounting for 20.6 per cent.
