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Gorstew shelves findings showing PNP ahead of JLP
The failure by Gorstew, a company owned by billionaire hotelier and publisher, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, to publish its own public opinion polls showing the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) ahead of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), has fuel the perception that Stewart and his newspaper, the Jamaica Observer, have adopted an anti government posture.
Reports are that a decision has been taken to suspend the Stone Polls indefinitely.
“We have some concerns with the polls, as the findings were leaked before they were handed over to us and we are assessing the situation before deciding if we are going to publish the results,” said Chris Zacca, deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Jamaica Observer, on Friday.
Zacca blamed persons with vested interests of attempting to politicise a “business decision”.
Up to Friday, grave uncertainty hung over the future of the once revered Stone Polls, founded by late university professor, Carl Stone. Its general manager, former Gleaner editor-in-chief, Wyvolyn Gager, has quit her post and sources indicate that other members of the team, including Professor Ian Boxill, academician Lloyd Waller, Laurence Powell, Arlene Daly and Roy Russell, had written their resignation letters.
Gager, however, told the Sunday Herald that her resignation had nothing to do with the controversy.
“My contract actually ended in March and I decided that I would not continue,” she said, adding that she stayed on only to clear up some unfinished business.
But according to sources, Gager decided to quit after she was told that a decision was taken to commission Don Anderson of Market Research Services Limited (MRSL) to conduct public opinion polls for publication in the Observer, when no explanation was given for the non-publication of the polls done by her team.
It seemed that decision coincided with the falling out between Gorstew and the Stone team.
‘Business decision’
The Stone team’s leading pollster, Dr. Ian Boxill, told the Sunday Herald that his team went into the field between late May and early June. The first part of the results was handed in two weeks ago and the second part last Thursday.
“We are not aware of any problems. We submitted the data and we were not told that it would not be published,” Dr. Boxill said on Thursday.
But Zacca said the results were on the streets shortly after they were handed over, “and we have problems with that”.
“This is a business decision. It is not making any money,” Zacca said, responding to questions over the future of the Stone Polls, following the decision to hire Anderson’s team of pollsters.
It was not clear if members of the Stone team were directly told of the decision to hire another pollster. But Zacca said, “We have been publishing” the results of a poll done by Anderson’s team, which was done over the same period of the rejected Stone Poll findings.
Although Zacca did not point to anyone as having been responsible for the alleged leak of the poll results, which sources said had the PNP leading the JLP by eight percentage points, he argued that not only was there a confidentiality problem, but also he had difficulty publishing information which was in the hands of his competitors.
However, Zacca did not explain if he would have taken a similar position if the results of the polls had the opposition ahead.
Cemented view
Once a staunch supporter of the PNP, Stewart’s recent sentiments towards a change of government are well known. And speculations that the Observer was singing his tune gained momentum following the publication of a front-page photograph of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller doodling in Parliament during debate on the controversial Trafigura affair last year.
Several cartoons ridiculing the Prime Minister since then, in addition to statements critical of the government’s handling of the economy, have cemented the view among some supporters of the government that the paper was supporting the opposition.
“It is unfair to the Observer,” Zacca said on Friday, pointing to the Anderson polls showing the government ahead of the opposition in several areas as evidence that the Observer was not biased.
“If we got the polls we would have published them,” argued Desmond Allen, the publication’s executive editor in charge of operations. Allen said his editorial team had no input in the decision to commission the polls and the paper was only a vehicle for its publication. But he had “lots of concerns” that the non-publication could feed into the perception in some quarters, that the paper was biased against the government.
Motives
As the political temperature heats up ahead of the General Elections later this year, publication of the Stone Polls by the Observer was widely anticipated last week. This was after earlier publication of the Bill Johnson Polls in the Gleaner showed the PNP five points ahead of the JLP and the Don Anderson Polls showing both parties in a statistical dead heat, and Observer columnist, Mark Wignall’s, poll showing the JLP ahead by seven points.
Stewart’s company, Gorstew, acquired the once respectable Stone Polls a year ago from Stone’s widow, Rosemarie, for an undisclosed sum, raising eyebrows in political circles about Stewart’s motives.
It is felt in political circles that Stewart is still upset with the government for its decision to take back Air Jamaica from his AJAS Group and subsequent controversy over the joint venture Sandals Whitehouse Hotel. Stewart scolded the JLP and demanded its leader Bruce Golding to reprimand Member of Parliament Andrew Gallimore when Gallimore criticised AJAS’s handling of Air Jamaica in Parliament.
Stewart’s critics say he is part of a wider “big capital agenda” to push the government from power. Those supporting that view pointed to Friday’s advertisement in the Financial Gleaner by John Mahfood, urging businessmen to peg their donations to political parties to a request for a written strategy for a reduction in murders to “no more than 10 per 100,000 of population during the following five years of their tenure.”
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