The latest Royal Gazette opinion polls show the Progressive Labour Party still leading the Opposition — but with its popularity on the wane after a brief spike when Ewart Brown became Premier.

If there was an election tomorrow 30.1 percent of people questioned would vote for the Government compared to 24.2 percent for the UBP, while 13.4 percent said they would not vote and 26.9 percent refused to say.

The figures show PLP support is slightly less than under the last days of former leader Alex Scott after a short-lived rise under new leader Dr. Brown which saw his party’s support hit nearly 40 percent in November.

Young voters are most pro-PLP with 42.2 percent of the under 35s backing the Government and just 14.1 percent backing the Opposition.

Among the middle aged 31.9 percent favour the PLP compared to 19.3 percent in the Opposition camp.

However the UBP gets 33.8 percent of the over 55s compared to 22.8 percent favouring the PLP.

The Opposition is leading among the poorest groups with 23.6 percent of the vote of households earning less than $50,000 per annum compared to 19.4 percent backing the PLP.

However the PLP has a massive lead among the middle classes with 43.9 percent of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000, compared to just 18.9 percent favouring the UBP. But the Opposition picks up more of those in the $100,000-plus bracket.

The PLP is picking up 46.1 percent of the black vote compared to just 10.5 percent for the UBP but the situation is virtually reversed among whites with just eight percent backing the Government and 53.6 percent favouring the Opposition.

Dr. Brown’s approval ratings for how he’s handling his job as Premier have jumped ten percent to 57.4 percent from the last polls.

And asked to give their overall opinion 61.4 percent gave a favourable opinion of Dr. Brown — up nearly ten percent on the January figure. Those giving an unfavourable opinion have fallen slightly to 24.3 percent.

A massive 75 percent of 18 to 35-year-olds have a favourable opinion of Dr. Brown while just over half of the 36 to 54-year-old age group gave him their backing.

Blacks were 73.8 percent in favour of Dr. Brown while whites were fairly evenly split with 47.3 percent voicing approval and 42 percent giving an unfavourable rating.

The Research Innovations Poll has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.