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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>JLP looking better than PNP after Trafigura</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline>More voters have less confidence in PNP because of Trafigura</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>STONE POLL
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>More Jamaicans say they now have less confidence in the ruling People's National Party (PNP) compared with those who feel the same way about the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) because of the highly controversial Trafigura affair, the latest Stone Poll has shown.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But surprisingly, the Stone survey found that of the 1,473 voters polled between October 21 and 25, a total 20.7 per cent said the Trafigura affair had left them with less confidence in both political parties.<P class=StoryText align=justify>".The effect of Trafigura appears to be more a loss of confidence in the political parties (particularly PNP), than in their associated leaders," said the Stone Polling Organisation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When asked whether they had more or less confidence in the two political parties, 20.7 per cent said they had "less confidence" in both parties, 24.3 per cent said that they had "less confidence" in the PNP, while 16.8 per cent said they had "less confidence" in the JLP as a result of the Trafigura affair," said the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=350 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>"The "more confidence" ratings were much lower, but of those, twice as many people said they had "more confidence" in the JLP than the PNP as a result of the incident," added Stone.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But stone concluded that: "There is no doubt that, overall, the JLP has come out of the Trafigura incident looking much better than the PNP."<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Government has been coming under heavy flak since October 3 when the Opposition revealed that the PNP had accepted a $31-million donation from Trafigura Beheer, the Dutch firm that lifts and sells Nigerian-supplied crude on the world market for Jamaica.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The PNP has consistently insisted that its dealings with Trafigura were above board and had said that the money was an election campaign donation. It also said that the account to which the money was transferred - CCOC Association - was used by the party for campaign funds.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It turned out that the account was opened in 1992 to hold campaign funds for former PNP general-secretary Colin Campbell when he first entered representational politics and that the letters CCOC stood for Colin Campbell Our Candidate.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Campbell, who emerged as the party and government official at the centre of the affair, resigned as PNP general-secretary and as information and development minister on October 9, admitting that he had not fully informed senior officers of the party about the transaction. His resignation also came after Trafigura claimed that the money was payment on a commercial arrangement.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Since then, PNP President and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has ordered the money returned to Trafigura.
However, that has done little to quell the debate, which
<SPAN class=Subheadline>More voters have less confidence in PNP because of Trafigura</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>STONE POLL
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=232 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>More Jamaicans say they now have less confidence in the ruling People's National Party (PNP) compared with those who feel the same way about the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) because of the highly controversial Trafigura affair, the latest Stone Poll has shown.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But surprisingly, the Stone survey found that of the 1,473 voters polled between October 21 and 25, a total 20.7 per cent said the Trafigura affair had left them with less confidence in both political parties.<P class=StoryText align=justify>".The effect of Trafigura appears to be more a loss of confidence in the political parties (particularly PNP), than in their associated leaders," said the Stone Polling Organisation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When asked whether they had more or less confidence in the two political parties, 20.7 per cent said they had "less confidence" in both parties, 24.3 per cent said that they had "less confidence" in the PNP, while 16.8 per cent said they had "less confidence" in the JLP as a result of the Trafigura affair," said the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=350 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>"The "more confidence" ratings were much lower, but of those, twice as many people said they had "more confidence" in the JLP than the PNP as a result of the incident," added Stone.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But stone concluded that: "There is no doubt that, overall, the JLP has come out of the Trafigura incident looking much better than the PNP."<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Government has been coming under heavy flak since October 3 when the Opposition revealed that the PNP had accepted a $31-million donation from Trafigura Beheer, the Dutch firm that lifts and sells Nigerian-supplied crude on the world market for Jamaica.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The PNP has consistently insisted that its dealings with Trafigura were above board and had said that the money was an election campaign donation. It also said that the account to which the money was transferred - CCOC Association - was used by the party for campaign funds.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It turned out that the account was opened in 1992 to hold campaign funds for former PNP general-secretary Colin Campbell when he first entered representational politics and that the letters CCOC stood for Colin Campbell Our Candidate.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Campbell, who emerged as the party and government official at the centre of the affair, resigned as PNP general-secretary and as information and development minister on October 9, admitting that he had not fully informed senior officers of the party about the transaction. His resignation also came after Trafigura claimed that the money was payment on a commercial arrangement.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Since then, PNP President and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has ordered the money returned to Trafigura.However, that has done little to quell the debate, which