Premier the preferred leader; Walwyn, Fahie close — survey
Premier Dr D Orlando Smith. (Photo Credit: Davion Smith/BVI News)
Premier Dr D Orlando Smith is still the preferred leader overall for the British Virgin Islands but residents have named Opposition Leader Andrew Fahie and Education Minister Myron Walwyn as close contenders.
This is according to a second political survey released recently by the Caribbean Development Research Services.
Twenty percent of the under-700 respondents in the survey prefer Dr Smith.
But Fahie’s rating is a close 17 percent while Walwyn has won the hearts of 15 percent of residents.
Notably, five percent of respondents prefer first-term legislator Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull to lead the BVI.
Turnbull follows Health Minister Ronnie Skelton (eight percent) and Deputy Premier, Kedrick Pickering (seven percent).
Another 20 percent of residents, would not say, do not care, or do not think any of the current legislators or political affiliates in the BVI are fit to lead.
Graph depicting residents’ preferred leader overall. — CADRES
Meanwhile, in the National Democratic Party’s (NDP) camp of supporters, a 37 percent majority still want Dr Smith to lead the party.
However, the survey revealed that Walwyn has a remarkable 33 percent following among NDP supporters. Only 10 percent of NDP supporters would like to see Skelton lead.
Over on the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) side, Opposition Leader Fahie commanded the support of 59 percent of VIP loyalists, the survey said.
During the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus five percent, respondents were also asked what party they believed was stronger on leadership.
Despite trouble in the camp, findings show that the NDP is still considered stronger on leadership.
Chart showing what party residents believe is stronger on leadership. — CADRES
Majority of residents still said they wanted to see the leadership of the NDP changed.
As for the VIP, most respondents think Andrew Fahie is the right man to lead the party at this time
Nearly a quarter of respondents were unsure if they wanted to see leadership changes in either political party.
Graph depicting residents responses on whether the time is right to change the leadership within each political party. — CADRES
The Caribbean Development Research Services, which is also called CADRES, is a research organisation based in Barbados. Over the years, it has conducted polls in several countries across the region.
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i see NONE is the best party
It says Pickering is preferred within the ndp not bullhead so tell the truth of the polls
More interesting data, thank you BVI News. We should do more political polls. They may not be perfect, but they are certainly interesting.
But I wonder if there isn’t a hidden problem for the NDP in those figures. If 20% want the Doc as Premier, but 15% want Myron, that feels like fertile ground for a leadership challenge.
The VIP has no such doubts about who is in charge. A man with one watch knows the time, but a man with two watches is never sure.
The main problem Dr. Smith has is that he is not a politician and is not interested in pleasing people. He runs and wins on merit and not fancy slogans, fear mongering etc. He is a different type of politician and easy to paint a certain way but he doesn’t care to respond, he just does what’s needed to be done and keeps it moving. If Dr. Smith was such a bad leader then all of his Government are not worth holding elected office because they continue to follow him. So the real question, is he a bad leader or are these people a bunch of hot air blowers and cowards?
Interesting point – what I do think is that many of the NDP Representatives just haven’t cut the mustard they really need to step up – especially the newer ones rather than trying to fool us with photo shoots and constant moaning about how more principled they are than others !
Interesting poll. What I would add though is technically there is a dead heat between Smith, Fahie and Walwyn because these polls normally have a 5% marginal error on either side. What stands out to me as well is that Smith and Fahie are leaders in their respective parties and have been campaigning as such. Walwyn isn’t the head of any party but yet statiscally tied with the two leaders. Just my observation.
Duuh…because he has been ‘a party within a party’ and campaigning on his own with his own agenda…Myron is not dumb for sure…but I would never vote for him
forget all these crooks. they only take care of self
Pure bull
Good one for smith ego this morning.
How accurate is such a pole when in actual fact there is only one party.
Is Fahie a party? Its time he and his loyalists get up and form the party, put some fire under the tail of some foxes and get the 13 legislators nominated and let us know who they are quickly and very urgently.
It is interesting to note: NDP loyalist gave their party leader 37 % chance, while the VIP loyalist gave their party leader, (One man band) 59%
There is absolute hope and victory for the VIP if only they play the cards right.
That survey was actually one sided because there is only one party on the field, but there is so much hope for VIP who is not quite a party contending. Fahie cannot be a party by himself.
My Brother, wake up me son, Mr ZZZzzzzzz say he up, you need to be wide awake, not just up. You can come from the back side of the dessert and win this thing in 2019.
We are with you ALLLL the WAYYYYY.
VIP is a strong party and it is rebuilding but it holds well for VIP with this poll because they are in high ranking and they are just getting started. VIP is definitely on the rise.
I agree with that for sure – Fahie needs to get some candidates. The 2019 election is only a year away but we know more about who won’t be a VIP candidate (Fraser) than who will.
If VIP is to have any chance, they need to start building a candidate list to generate some name recognition.
A year away you say? You all don’t pay attention, just check Antigua and Grenada recently.
Whatever Kedrick does, he should NEVER have Wall-wind as his deputy. WW as deputy or leader would be a recipe for disaster…look how he fly in the face of ..
Hater Alert! You VIP would love Kedrick as the leader Evans’s you know that the NDP cannot win with him as the head. Good strategy though.
The supportive figures for VIP indicate, to a substantial degree, minds who are unaware of how historical damage the politics of the VIP brand did for the BVI,its poor and future children.
Though much progress was realized, there was no political mind attuned to social justice for everyone.
Hence, the investor had free reign in keeping us all economically disadvantaged, while reaping, and still are, the huge benefits from our hard labor.
For example, the employees of the [a certain supermarket] CHAIN are still working egregiously hard now for decades, yet they are not being a “living wage.”
When they do get a pay increase it a mere 10cents, but the food prices have been going up every week since 1960.
Just one of many examples of how VIP politics have left us victims of the wise and unscrupulous capitalist investor.
Meanwhile, some within the current membership have openly expressed the view that “they are in it for themselves.”
Such does not reflect what most of us want, which are leaders who will fight exhaustively for every BVIslanders’ rights and happiness, not just himself/herself.
Jokers. Life is Real. The majority does not care for Smith leadership of late. That’s the talk of the street.
Myron is the best of the set hands down. The haters will come out now because that’s what we do here in the BVI. When somebody is just good we can’t allow ourselves to just say it. We have to find some fault in them to justify whatever jealousy or other feelings that we might be having. If we wanted to be truthful without bias Myron is the best of what we have in the government. He is the most reachable, helpful and productive. Real Talk! Haters come out and talk now. I done talk and my mind can’t change.
I agree!
The NDP is famous for branding anyone who isn’t with them as bad but they are really the bad ones. I use to be an NDP supporter all the way but I am taking my chances with Fahie and the VIP next election.
There is a man who declared that he is running for election. He is up and down campaigning but his whole campaign is about bad mouthing Hon. Walwyn. He spoke with me last week and up to now he cannot tell me what he will do to help the country but everything out his mouth is Hon. Walwyn. I have known Myron for decades and I know what this man is saying is all lies but I had to get the news so I listened. When I read the “who vex buss” blog I had to press like because it’s true. I am sure that the same man who claim he is running is on this same news site writing negative blogs and pressing the dislike button. This place is something else dread!
Most people want Dr Smith and most people do not want Fannie, or Skelton or Walwyn.
But most people do not have votes.
After hell break loose . you all going side Mitch .
What was the population sample? How large was the n? Is this just an “opinion” poll of the general public? Or were actual voters polled? Come on, from one researcher to another. validity? reliability? I need more data please.
Struppes lead us into more s**t. this country will be it’s own demise. nothing will be enough until we’re out to sea looking at tola and saying yeah we used to live there.