A new poll shows only three out of every ten voters have a favourable impression of Premier Ewart Brown compared to more than seven in ten favouring Deputy Premier Paula Cox.

And the Progressive Labour Party is still ahead of the United Bermuda Party whose leader Kim Swan only gets the approval of 36 percent of voters.

Only 22 percent of voters approved of Dr. Brown's performance as Premier while 38 percent disapproved while the rest did not have an opinion either way.

The June phone poll of 402 registered voters, which has a margin of error of 4.9 percent, also compared the performance of six well-known PLP politicians.

Asked to rank PLP politicians in order of competence in dealing with important issues facing Bermuda, Paula Cox came out on top while Dr. Brown came second.

Culture and Social Rehabilitation Minister Dale Butler beat former Premier Alex Scott for third spot, Education Minister Randy Horton is ranked fifth while Dame Jennifer Smith, another former PLP Premier, came in last.

The breakdown of Dr. Brown's ratings show that 41 percent of blacks have a favourable rating of the Premier compared to 27 percent having an unfavourable rating and 30 percent undecided.

However, 68 percent of whites have an unfavourable impression of Dr. Brown with 22 percent undecided and ten percent being favourable.

There is little difference between the genders on Dr. Brown but younger people are more likely to be non-committal.

Only 22 percent of 35-54 year-olds have a favourable rating of Dr. Brown compared to 47 percent non-favourable and 30 in the middle but he does better among the 55-64 year-old age group.

The poll shows 71 percent of registered voters have a favourable impression of Deputy Premier Paula Cox.

Only eight percent of whites have an unfavourable rating of her while 53 percent have a favourable rating.

Only five percent of blacks disapprove of Paula Cox while 83 percent have a favourable impression.

Kim Swan's figures show 19 percent unfavourable, 36 percent favourable, ten percent undecided and 34 percent having no strong opinions either way.

White voters and older voters were the groups most likely to have a favourable impression of Mr. Swan.

Only 15 percent of voters had a favourable impression of UBP's deputy leader Cole Simons with 29 percent saying they didn't even know who he was.

On party rankings the PLP gets the backing of 37 percent of voters compared to 33 percent backing the UBP and 27 percent undecided or refusing to say.

Voters are still heavily divided on race lines — 56 percent of blacks back the Government and 13 percent back the Opposition.

And 72 percent of whites favour the Opposition with 14 percent backing the PLP.

Just over two thirds of registered voters said they would vote for the same party if they were given the opportunity to vote again now but close to three in ten voters said they didn't know which party they would vote for.

Only four percent of the PLP camp wanted to switch votes while nearly twice as many — seven percent — in the UBP camp would switch to the PLP while 13 percent of voters didn't know or would not say.

Five percent of UBP voters said they wouldn't vote if an election was held now, while seven percent of PLP voters would stay at home if there was a new ballot.

Independence is opposed by 73 percent of registered voters, with 14 percent in favour and 13 percent not sure.

Men and whites were more likely to be against Bermuda splitting from Britain, women and blacks were slightly more favourable to it.