More than half of Jamaicans say Mark Golding’s performance as Opposition Leader is below average.

That’s according to the latest Nationwide/Bluedot polls, powered by Total Tools.

The pollsters found that nearly three years into his tenure at the helm of the People’s National Party, the man fondly called “Markie G” is struggling to make an impact with Jamaicans.

Ricardo Brooks reports:

Mark Golding will take the stage at his party’s 85th annual conference on Sunday as a leader under water.

Despite the best efforts of the People’s National Party to package and sell him to the electorate, Mr. Golding is struggling to be seen as more than just an average performer.

The Bluedot pollsters asked 1,294 Jamaicans to rate Mr. Golding’s performance on a scale of 1 – 10, where 0 is Extremely Poor and 10 is Exceptional.

The finding was poor.

In fact, a combined total of 54.3 % of respondents rate Mark Golding’s performance below average.

That’s up from the 51.2 % of Jamaicans who rated him below average in the March 2023 survey.

A total of12.5% gave Mr. Golding the lowest grade of 0, 6% rated him at 1, 8% rated him at 2, 12% rated him at 3 and 15% rated the Opposition Leader’s performance just below average at 4.

His highest single rating was an average of 5 at 23%.

Of those who believe Mr. Golding is performing above average, 7% graded him at 6, 4% gave him a 7, 4% rated him at 8, 1% at 9 and 4% gave him the highest grade of 10.

That’s a combined above average grade of 22.4%.

Mr. Golding secures his highest performance rating among male respondents who gave him a combined above average of 23%. Women who believe the Opposition Leader is performing above average amounted to a combined 18%.

Notably, 42% of women voters rated Mr. Golding’s performance below average.

In the age demographics, respondents 65 years and older gave Mr. Golding his highest combined above average rating of 39%.

Those 25 – 34 and 45-54 took the dimmest view of Golding’s performance, with 14 and 15% of those demographics respectively giving him the lowest grade of 0.

Mr. Golding’s strongest parish support is in Portland where nearly 40% of respondents gave him an above average rating. Conversely, his lowest parish support is in Westmoreland and Trelawny where 61% of respondents gave him a below average rating.

PNP General Secretary Dr. Dayton Campbell has maintained as Jamaicans get to know Mr. Golding, their perception of him will change.

But the numbers are suggesting that’s not the case.

When the comrades descend on the National Arena, the message from Mr. Golding’s will likely be time come. But he makes that message with a difficult task ahead of him to convince Jamaicans that he’s the man for the job.

The Nationwide/Bluedot poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.75%. It was conducted between August 18 and September 7 and

94% of the respondents are registered voters.