No Manatt bounce

Christopher 'Dudus' Coke

• Poll shows PNP won't gain votes from extradition saga

The opposition People's National Party (PNP) should not expect any bounce in its vote count based on the Government's botched handling of the extradition request for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the subsequent revelations at the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry.

A Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson national opinion poll has found that nearly a quarter of Jamaica's voting population said the Manatt-Dudus affair would not affect the way they would mark their ballots in the next national elections.

The poll was conducted among 1,008 people across Jamaica's 14 parishes on May 28 and 29 and June 4 and 5, 2011. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent.

A sizable 34 per cent of the persons sampled said they were less likely to vote as the Manatt-Dudus affair has impacted the way they feel about politics in general in Jamaica.

The governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which commingled with the government apparatus in a bid to influence the outcome of the extradition request for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, one of its key supporters, has attracted an additional 14 per cent of the voting population who say they are more likely to vote for the party.

But 22 per cent of those polled say they are no more likely to vote for the Opposition PNP.

At the same time, five per cent of those persons sampled said they are less likely to vote for the JLP. On the other hand, one per cent of the respondents said they were less likely to vote for the Opposition PNP in the elections constitutionally due by September next year.