Barbadian pollster Peter Wickham has said that Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has given away the element of surprise by dropping hints at the recent Mega Rally by Congress that elections will not be held this year but sometime in 2027.
He said the Prime Minister has a strategic advantage in setting the date for elections whenever he wants to do so and he could have capitalized on the prevailing atmosphere as the main opposition New National Party (NNP) is far from ready for a national poll.
Wickham told Junior George, the host of the Ridealong programme, “I think it is painfully obvious that the NNP is less ready than they would like to be ready now”
According to the Barbadian pollster, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell “has essentially telegraphed his decision in terms of when he is going to call the election by telling people in this open forum.”
He said the Congress leader has now given the opposition “the best news that they hadn’t had in a long time which is that you aren’t going into an election immediately and you have several months to prepare yourself for an election.”
He went on to say: “So I really, really hope he (PM Dickon Mitchell) knows what he is getting himself into because he has essentially surrendered the strategic advantage that he can have.
“My sense is that if he calls the elections now, he would probably win a lot more easily,” he added.
Wickham urged the NNP Political Leader Emmalin Pierre to take advantage of the time given to her by the Prime Minister to get her party in shape for the election.
“If Emmalin Pierre is as astute politically as I think she is – and advised well – she will use this time very, very wisely to settle the party properly and perhaps to deal with any rifts or any divisions that may have taken place.
“If she doesn’t use the time to do that then it would be the same level of carnage it would have probably been now. My sense is I think sooner rather than later would have been better for him (Dickon Mitchell to call the general election).
According to Wickham, he does not know what kind of information, data and intelligence that the Grenadian leader has in his possession that resulted in him delaying the election and not calling the poll right now.
“My personal feeling is that it might be a bit of political naivety on his part because … he is not a person who is as steeped in politics as we may like and I think if Keith Mitchell was in his position, Keith Mitchell would have called the election….,” he said.
In the month leading up to the 2022 poll, Wickham did a poll for the NNP and showed the party remaining in office.
During the first hour of election results, Wickham was a guest on the Grenada Broadcasting Network (GBN) and said that he could not see Congress winning any seats in the election.
Dickon Mitchell, a barrister-at-law by profession, led the National Democratic Congress to a 9-6 victory at the polls.
The Barbadian pollster also attributed the massive turnout at the NDC rally last month to people attending due to anticipation that the date for the election would have been announced.
Wickham said: “People went to that rally to hear an election date – they went with the expectation that something was happening and he basically told them to cool their heels …
“I don’t think that’s what people expected … so I think there was a level of disappointment.”
Weeks before the holding of the rally, Prime Minister Dickon had stated on a radio programme that he did not plan to call the general election anytime soon.