Older voters reclaim the ballot box, more youth step back
Published:Sunday | August 31, 2025 | 12:20 AMLivern Barrett - Senior Staff Reporter
There has been a sizable increase over the last two weeks in the number eligible Jamaicans across the older population who plan to step into a polling booth in the general election on Wednesday, a new survey commissioned by the RJRGLEANER Group has revealed.
Conversely, the number of young people expected to participate has inched downwards, the survey found.
Sixty-seven per cent of respondents between ages 45 and 54 and 64 per cent of respondents between 55 and 64 have now signalled that they plan to vote, a 10-percentage point swing for each age cohort.
The poll, conducted by Anderson’s Market Research Services Limited from August 22 to 26, surveyed individuals aged 18 and older across all Jamaican parishes and has a margin of error of ±3 percentage points at a 95 per cent confidence level.
Both age ranges represent the largest increase across all age groups when compared with the previous poll commissioned by the RJRGLEANER Group, which was conducted between August 2 and 11.
Fifty-one per cent of respondents in the 35 to 44 age group and 61.8 per cent of respondents 65 years old and over said they intend to vote, increases of two and four percentage points, respectively.
FEWER YOUTH INTERESTED
But it was a different story for younger eligible voters.
Nearly 35 per cent of respondents between ages 18 and 24 answered yes as did 42 per cent of respondents between 25 and 34 years old when asked if they planned to cast a ballot, declines of four and two percentage points, respectively, when compared with the poll done in early August.
Overall, the latest poll found that 55.5 per cent of voters are likely to head to polling stations to choose whether to give the Dr Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) a third term in office or to hand state power to the Mark Golding-led People’s National Party (PNP). The number of electors likely to cast a ballot has inched up by almost four percentage points.
It revealed, too, that 28 per cent of respondents said they had no intention of voting on Wednesday, a decline of almost one percentage point when compared with the poll done earlier this month.
The number of undecided voters dropped by almost four percentage points from 20.5 per cent to 16.2 per cent, the latest poll found.
Sixty per cent of male respondents answered yes and 25.8 per cent answered no when asked if they planned to vote while 14 per cent were undecided.
Fifty-one per cent of female respondents indicated that they would vote while 30.6 per cent said no and 18.2 per cent were undecided.
Among the undecided voters, the second-largest bloc – 17 per cent – blamed it on their lack of confidence in the two main political parties.
The majority of 30.5 per cent said they “just have not decided yet”.