POLLSTER BILL Johnson yester-day stoutly defended his method of polling, declaring that he stands by his findings.
Mr. Johnson was responding to charges from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that his polls were compromised because he has polled for the governing People's National Party (PNP). Mr. Johnson noted that he has conducted polls for the PNP, like other local pollsters, but argued that he has also done work for several companies, including Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO), Red Stripe and GraceKennedy.
"This is a classic case of attacking the messenger and not the message," Mr. Johnson said. He argued that he would not have survived for 10 years in Jamaica doing only polls for the PNP and that companies would not have continued to use him had they thought him inaccurate.
FIFTH-TERM BOOST
Karl Samuda, JLP general secretary, yesterday questioned the findings of a Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll which showed Prime Minister-designate Portia Simpson Miller being preferred by 52 per cent of voting age Jamaicans to 26 per cent for JLP Leader Bruce Golding, in the event a general election was called now. The Sunday Gleaner report also said Mrs. Simpson Miller has boosted the PNP's chances of winning a fifth term, the governing party having been in office since 1989.
Said Samuda: "It is a pity that a poll like this has been elevated to the level that it has, because Mr. Johnson is a well-known pollster for the People's National Party and I believe that that in someway compromises the integrity of the poll."
