With the most recent political poll showing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) losing favourability among Jamaicans, its leader Prime Minister Andrew Holness has attributed the unfavourable ratings to electoral fatigue.

Holness said his administration is now preoccupied with finding ways to reconnect and build momentum ahead of the next general election.

According to a recent People’s National Party-commissioned poll by Don Anderson, 30. 2 per cent of Jamaicans would vote for the opposition party while 25 per cent would vote for the ruling JLP, if an election should be called. Some 44. 8 per cent of Jamaicans said that they would not vote or have not yet decided.

Holness, who was speaking at a quarterly press conference on Thursday, August 3, said that it is normal for governments to experience electoral fatigue.

“It is a reality that every government, except maybe one or two, I can pick out for other reasons, one in Central America, is not experiencing this fatigue and the fatigue is genuine on both sides of the equation, meaning that we went through a hundred-year event, which diverted the energy and creativity and attention of the Cabinet to focus almost holy and solely on that. In other words, everything that we did we saw it through the prism of the pandemic, just to ensure that the country came out strong afterwards,” Holness explained as he tried to justify the JLP dwindling approval ratings..

The prime minister pointed out that much of the electoral fatigue resulted the decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic, which focused solely on protecting the population and recovery of the economy.

He noted that a part of his administration’s response is to recalibrate the way it communicates and address the immediate needs of the country.