Poll: Voters not pleased with Oil Royalty

Feb 09, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

Respondents in a poll being conducted by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) overwhelmingly say that Guyana should have oil royalty and financial terms similar to neighboring Surinam. Guyana gets only two, one percent and zero percent royalties from varied energy multinationals. In addition, Guyana pays their corporate tax on profits. Suriname gets 6 percent royalty and the corporations pay their own taxes on profits. Guyanese are not pleased with the terms of the contract signed with the oil giants and those contracts could very well influence the way they vote.
The poll, conducted over the last couple weeks, asked 580 likely voters (40% Indians, 30% Africans, 19 percent Mixed, 10 percent Amerindians, one percent others) their views on a variety of contemporary issues. There is a margin of error of 4% at a 95% confidence level in the responses. The poll is being supervised by Dr. Vishnu Bisram who has been conducting survey research in Guyana for over three decades.
When asked to identify the most important problem facing the country, respondents could not restrict themselves to pinpointing only one. But crime is on the mind of everyone. And almost everyone said they are also worried about the state of the economy, corruption, price of goods, joblessness, election related violence, and credibility of the elections, among others. The government gets praises for its work in infrastructure.
Asked if they think Guyana should have similar royalty (6%) as Suriname, the response was unanimously yes with 8% not offering a response saying they are not sure about the background of the issue. Asked if they think energy companies in Guyana should pay taxes as in Surinam, the answer was also unanimous with 9% not responding.
Asked if given the choice between Finance Minister Winston Jordan and former Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo who they would prefer to manage the economy, Jagdeo leads 64% to 25% with 11% not giving a response. Jagdeo is praised for his skills in growing the economy.
Queried whether small parties should combine their votes to win (more) seats to hold balance of power in parliament, voters are divided 54%-36% with 10% saying they are not sure. Some say they don’t trust small parties.
Asked if they think the elections will be free and fair, 56% said no with 36% saying yes and 8% not sure.
The poll found Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, Presidential candidate Irfaan Ali, and Anil Nandlall as the most popular politicians in the opposition camp with President Granger, Joe Harmon, and Volda Lawrence the most popular in the government camp.

Respectfully
Vishnu Bishram

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