PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) voters are adamant that Prime Minister Bruce Golding's ship is being steered off course, according to the most recent Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson polls.

Correspondingly, the number of persons who believe Jamaica is heading in the right direction has inched downward since the September 3 general election, which was won by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

A mere 22 per cent of the respondents to the poll, which was conducted last weekend with a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent, believe that Jamaica is heading in the right direction.

This is a six-point fall from the 28 per cent of Jamaicans who said, a week before the election, that the country was heading in the right direction.

The most recent survey was conducted on November 24 and November 25 among 1,008 residents in 84 communities across Jamaica.

There was a two per cent point increase in the number of persons who believed the country was going in the wrong direction, up from the 54 per cent who felt that way in August.

Forty-one per cent of those who voted JLP in the general election believe the country is going in the right direction.

PNP detractors

At the same time, 76 per cent of persons who voted for the PNP on September 3 said the country was going in the wrong direction, while nine per cent believe the country is heading in the right direction, and 15 per cent don't know.

Of the persons who voted for the JLP, 35 per cent believed the country was heading in the wrong direction while 24 per cent said they did not know.

Recently, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller accused Prime Minister Golding's two-month-old government of being the worst in Jamaica's history.

Simpson Miller's attack was based on rising food and fuel costs facing Jamaican consumers. She said the Golding administration had not done enough to protect the Jamaican public from the shocks of globalisation.

Given the increasing social and economic costs, political analyst Charlene Sharp-Pryce said the fact that there has only been a two percentage point increase in the number of persons who believe the country is heading in the wrong direction is an indication that "people seem to be willing to give the Government a chance to settle in".

She, however, noted that the attitude of the PNP voters to the Golding administration may be influenced by the belief that the Prime Minister is a flip-flopper.

Golding has, thus far, been criticised for the size of his Cabinet - 18 members he had promised to run a tighter, more efficient government.