Last Updated on January 20, 2022 3:08 pm by Editor
Introduction
In the 2022 election, the four most important issues for Barbadians are (1) national debt, (2) corruption in government (3) quality of service from government departments and (4) employment. These are the salient trends emerging from analysis of the Barbados Uncensored 2022 Online Election Survey.
While the survey cannot by any means be regarded as “rigorously scientific” in terms of size and sample methodology, the results show the trends in the thinking of Barbadians. The purpose was not to predict the outcome of the election but to get a general sense of the issues that the electorate regraded as important. Emphasis was on keeping the survey brief to avoid survey abandonment. In the following paragraphs we report on the response to the key questions asked.
Timing of the Election
The implication here is clear; most people do not agree with the timing of the election.
As part of the survey we collected comments in this question. Some of the raw comments made by respondents are shown below.
- Difficult to govern with a make-shift opposition.
- Fair play for all. You already have the whole hog…why in so much hurry?
- It really doesn’t matter
- Risking people’s health
- Need enough time to allow all to be able to vote due to covid.
- More provisions concerning covid could have been put in place before the election was called
Importance of Party Manifesto
Typically in analyzing a five-point scale the extreme points are usually conflated resulting in a 3-point scale. On this basis the interpretation of Fig. 2 is that 66% (29%+37%) regard a manifesto as “very important or somewhat important” whereas 12% regard it as “Unimportant or not important at all”.
Importance of Election to You
We regarded this as a crucial question especially because of the short preparation time for the election.
Applying the same analytical approach as in Fig. 3 this chart means that 73% of persons surveyed see this election as “very important or somewhat important” whereas 7% (2%+5%) see it as “unimportant or very unimportant (that is not important at all)”.
We now move to some of the most critical questions of the survey; those dealing with the substantive issues on the minds of the respondents. This battery of questions was posed as follows:
“Rank the importance of the following issues to YOU in this election on a scale of 1 to 5 where 5= Very Important and 1 = Very Unimportant”.
Importance of National Debt of Barbados
Note that in this and the following charts, the points of the scale were reversed in keeping with generally accepted methodological (measurement) practice. However, the interpretation process is the same as in the previous charts.
Therefore, 60% (9%+51%) regard the national debt as “very important or somewhat important”. On the other hand, 22% regard it as “unimportant or very unimportant (that is not important at all)”.
Importance of Debt to China
In Fig. 5 a total of 58% see the debt to China as “very important or somewhat important”. In contradistinction, 42% (11% + 15% + 16%) can be labelled as neutral or do not see the debt to China as important.
Importance of Corruption in Government
The results in Fig.6 are quite self-explanatory; 70% (55%+15%) of respondents regard corruption as “very important or somewhat important”. On the other hand, 22% regard it as “unimportant or very unimportant (that is not important at all)”.
Importance of Employment
There are no surprises here. A total of 71% (16%+55%) of respondents perceive jobs as “very important or somewhat important”. In contrast, 25% regard it as “unimportant or very unimportant (that is not important at all)”.
Climate Change
Opinion here is more evenly distributed but still slightly skewed. Altogether, 56% view climate change as important or very important whereas 20% do not see it as unimportant or very unimportant at all. Interestingly, just under a quarter (24%) are neutral about this issue.
Customer Service in Government Agencies
Only 15% of respondents do not see this as important or important at all whereas 64% regard it as important or very important.
Interference of Government in Religious Matters
We regarded this as an important area of interest because of the debate surrounding this matter leading up to the inauguration of the Republic of Barbados in the last quarter of 2021.
Fifty-six percent (56%) survey respondents viewed government interference in religion as important or very important whereas 30% see it as unimportant or very unimportant. Fifteen percent (15%) are impartial to the issue.
Constituency Specific Issues
Invariably elections are fought at two major levels, the national and constituency level. For this question we asked respondents about the importance of constituency issues.
Figure 11 presents an interesting picture of the distribution of opinion here. Less than half, forty-six percent (46%) to be exact, regard constituency issues as important or very important, thirty-three percent (33%) are neutral and 22 percent attach very minimal importance to the issue. This suggests that national issues might be more important than constituency issues in this election, a suggestion borne out by the relatively high importance attached to national issues such as debt and corruption (see Fig. 2, Fig.3 and Fig. 4).
Participation in Government Outside of Elections
This was one of the key issues on which most of the parties in the election campaigned. Fig 12 indicates that 49% view participation in government outside of elections as important or very important whereas 18% do not attach much importance to it. A fairly sizeable segment, thirty-three percent (33%), are neutral.
If we added those who are neutral to those who attach minimal importance we obtain 51%. This implies that a slight majority of respondents are not too interested in participation in government outside of elections. However, given the limitations of this survey, this conclusion is not definitive. A larger, more stratified sample might have produced different results.
Preparation of Third Parties for Election
With regard to this issue, the figures more or less speak for themselves: 60% of respondents rate the preparation of the so-called third parties as very poor or poor. Only eight percent regard it as good or excellent and 33% give a fair rating.
N.B. Our initial review of the
2022 elections results is now available here
Demographics
Gender
Age Distribution
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Dr. Aldon Tull, the author, is a retired educator who holds a Master of Science in International Marketing and the Doctor of Education.
He can be reached at editor@barbadosuncensored.com at 246-228-3720 or on Whatsapp at 246-846-3191
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