A poll of the marginal constituency of Toco/Sangre Grande shows voters will likely return the People’s National Movement candidate to the seat in Monday’s general election. Asked who they intended to vote for come Monday, 55 per cent of the respondents said the PNM, while 33 per cent said the United National Congress.
Some 11 per cent of the respondents said they were still undecided about who to vote for while the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) polled one per cent. The PNM’s candidate is Glenda Jennings-Smith while the UNC candidate is Brent Sancho.
The strata were based on the percentage victory of the winning party over its nearest rival in each polling division (PD) and resulted in the PDs being classified as “strong PNM,” “marginal” and “strong PP.” The proportion of the sample selected in each stratum was proportional to the percentage of the total votes cast.
Those who were undecided or refused to respond were still asked to indicate which party they were inclined to support in the election. These were then reallocated to the parties where this was indicated. This still resulted in 11 per cent being undecided or refusing to respond.
Some 19 per cent of those who voted for the People’s Partnership in 2010 now report that they intend to vote for the PNM in 2015. This compares with only four per cent of previous PNM voters who now intend to vote for the UNC/PP. The margin of error associated with the question was nine per cent but even if all of the undecided are allocated to the UNC/PP results indicate a PNM victory.
The PNM was also considered the “best” party in looking after the interests of people; having the best policies for the country as a whole and having the best team of leaders to deal with the country’s problems. PNM leader Dr Keith Rowley has overtaken Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as being the best prime ministerial among people in the constituency.
Rowley received 55 per cent of the votes while Persad-Bissessar got 39 per cent. Warner received two per cent of the support.