The Free National Movement (FNM) and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) are in a statistical dead heat ahead of the 2012 general election, according to the results of a poll conducted for The Nassau Guardian by market research and public opinion polling company Public Domain.
Asked who they would vote for if an election was held today, 30.5 percent said they would vote for the FNM; 23.7 percent said PLP; 16.5 percent said Democratic National Alliance (DNA); 1.6 percent said they would vote for other parties or candidates and 12.2 percent said they were undecided.
Another 3.7 percent were classified as FNM leaners; another 6.6 percent as PLP leaners and another 5.2 percent as DNA leaners.
The FNM therefore got 34.2 percent of the total support; the PLP got 30.3 percent of total support and the DNA got 21.7 percent of total support.
Public Domain contacted 501 respondents in a telephone survey between March 5 and March 12, 2012. Such a sample size has a maximal margin of error of 4.4 percent, researchers said.
Thirty-two percent of the respondents said the FNM; another 32 percent said the PLP; eight percent said the DNA and 28 percent of the respondents were undecided.
“What this would say to me is there is a significant anti-government vote that is being split by the PLP and the DNA. The idea is I think Bahamians do not believe that the DNA can win and believe that one of the two other parties will win the next election, but aren’t sure which one,” Public Domain President M’wale Rahming explained.