Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
COMPARING THEM to comic strips, Opposition Leader Bruce Golding continues to shrug off opinion poll findings, namely the latest Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll published yesterday showing a decline in support for the People's National Party (PNP).
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) had previously questioned the credibility of Mr. Johnson findings as he has done polling work for the PNP.
Speaking at a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area One Council meeting at the Scouts' headquarters on Camp Road, Kingston, yesterday, Mr. Golding said he put greater stock in the results of the three by-elections, since he became Opposition Leader last March. In one parliamentary election and two local elections, he said the JLP had increased its share of the vote.
While the poll, conducted in May, shows the JLP still on 26 per cent the PNP has slid to 44, down from 52 in March. Taking the stage to the refrain of "Come mek we go mash dem down nah lose" by dancehall artiste Sizzla Kalonji, Mr. Golding urged the party to ignore poll findings - good or bad - as part of the "psychological warfare of politics". Instead, the JLP would in future offer "no comment" in response, he added.
"We have no comment to make because we will not allow ourselves to be a yo-yo on the end of the string for someone working in the media," he said.
Leaving the meeting he told The Gleaner of forthcoming local and general elections: "We are going to win this election, we have a clear majority of support."
Inside the meeting, he and other members of the JLP top brass, Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie and Opposition spokesman on National Security Derrick Smith, had poured scorn on the PNP amid reports of a split between the 'yellow' camp of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and the 'orange' of those in the party that backed other candidates during her successful campaign for the leadership of the PNP.
Mr. Golding said by not resolving the cement shortage more speedily, the ensuing crisis represented a failure in the leadership of the Prime Minister. Mr. Golding contrasted Mrs. Simpson Miller's leadership with the "sternness and toughness" of Edward Seaga as JLP Prime Minister between 1980 and 1989.
