‘It was not our poll’

Barbados Private Sector Association chairman John Williams. (FP)

Thu, May 24, 2012 - 12:08 AM

Saying count them out, two of Barbados’ leading private sector groups have distanced themselves from a recent political poll.

The Barbados Private Sector Association and the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) said they did not instigate the CADRES poll.

Barbados Private Sector Association chairman John Williams yesterday said his group “definitely did not” have anything to do with the poll that showed Prime Minister Freundel Stuart lagging fourth behind Opposition Leader Owen Arthur who was most favoured, Opposition Member of Parliament Mia Mottley and Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler.

The poll was commissioned by an undisclosed private sector group and provided exclusively to the SUNDAY SUN.

“I don’t know if it was done by any other members of the private sector but I know it was definitely not the [Barbados] Private Sector Association. It is not even something that was ever mooted or discussed or considered,” said Williams, before he gave the feature address at the BCCI annual general meeting.

Meanwhile, former BCCI president Andy Armstrong said: “It certainly was not the Chamber of Commerce; not at all.”

According to Armstrong, who was yesterday replaced by Lalu Vaswani as head of the BCCI, “I don’t think we would ever consider a poll. If we did, it would be of something more practical and not political”. (GE)