Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL), stated that surveys are useful for political parties but acknowledged that they are not always correct. Photo: Facebook

According to an opinion poll released on April 3, 2018 Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Orlando D. Smith (AL) is the preferred leader of the Virgin Islands at this time with 20% of persons responding in his favour, followed by Opposition Leader Andrew A. Fahie (R1) with 17% and Education Minister Hon Myron V. Walwyn (AL) with 15%. Photo: CADRES

Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL), admitted that he would have liked to see the rebuilding process reach further than where it is not but noted that it will take time due to the severity of the devastation on the territory. Photo: VINO/File

During a one on one press conference with media houses on April 12, 2018, with Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL), he stated that surveys are useful for political parties but acknowledged that they are not always correct.

“Surveys are useful things I think and it may help political parties to look at how their campaigns are going. Surveys are sometimes accurate and sometimes they are quite far out so it’s difficult to say what the mood of the country is based on surveys. But I know that this group [Caribbean Development Research Services Inc.] is quite a respected group who did the survey in various parts of the Caribbean,” said the Premier.

The results of the survey found that Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL) is the preferred leader at this time with 20 percent of persons responding in his favour, followed by Honourable Andrew A. Fahie, Opposition Leader and First District Representative, with 17 percent and Honourable Myron V. Walwyn (AL), Minister for Education and Culture with 15 percent.

"I would have hoped to be further along in the process" - Premier Smith

CADRES also found that Hon Walwyn was the best performing minister and a majority of the voters are not satisfied with the direction the territory is heading following the hurricanes of September 2017.

In response to voters not satisfied with the direction the territory is heading, Premier Smith admitted that he would have hoped to be further in the rebuilding process but acknowledged that because of the extent of the devastation it will take time.

He explained, “What I would say is that I would have hoped that we would have been further along in the process but I do understand that we suffered quite a lot from the devastation and it will take some time, and you would appreciate that as I mentioned before a significant part of the economy has been affected. And therefore, it takes time to have discussions with institutions like the Caribbean Development Bank, United Kingdom in terms of guarantees, before we can get the funds that are necessary to rebuild the BVI.”

He further stated that the territory was fortunate to have the Reserve Fund in place to assist with the initial clean up and restoration of the electricity grid but noted that the Reserve Fund “cannot last forever” and there are still other things to be done.

“It does take some time to get everything in place but we are getting there,” said the Premier.