The findings of the latest ongoing NACTA opinion poll on issues relating to the May 24 general elections in Triniddad and Tobago shows that the Congress of the People (COP) has lost over half of its support to the UNC since Kamla Persad-Bissessar became leader.

The poll has also shown Persad-Bissessar as having overwhelming support among opposition supporters, far more popular support than COP leader Winston Dookeran to head an electoral alliance or accommodation of opposition parties.

The poll was conducted before the opposition parties announced on Sunday that they will be ccontesting the upcoming election as a unified force.

Persad-Bissessar will lead the united group as its Prime Ministerial candidate, while according to reports, a deal was brokered for Dookeran to become the country's President in 2012, when the term of the current President expires.

The Presidency in T&T is an appointed position.

NACTA is a New York-based research and polling organisation with no affiliation with any political outfit and has been conducting surveys in Trinidad since 1995, a statement from NACTA said on the weekend.

The poll has been conducted over the last week and was co-ordinated by NY-based pollster Vishnu Bisram.

The findings of the poll are based on interviews with 490 respondents who claim they are supporters of the UNC and or COP.

NACTA said supporters of the opposition overwhelmingly endorsed an opposition alliance or electoral arrangement but are divided on how it should be constituted with some saying COP candidates should go up under the UNC, COP should be allowed to contest those seats where it ran second in the 2007 general elections, or COP candidates should be given a few marginal seats.

UNC supporters are adamantly opposed to conceding any of the safe seats to the COP except to Winston Dookeran and deputy leader Prakash Ramadhar to arrive at an accommodation against the PNM.

The poll also showed UNC supporters almost unanimously backing Persad-Bissessar and two thirds of COP supporters also backing Persad- Bissessar.

The poll also found that the COP was a fraction of what it was in 2007 with over half of its supporters returning to the UNC under Persad-Bissessar. Asked who should be projected as leader of an opposition alliance, 74 percent backed Persad-Bissessar with only 21 percent saying Dookeran.

Many UNC supporters said they will not vote if Persad-Bissessar was not the leader of an alliance or if loyalist UNC candidates are not going up in the so called "safe" seats.

The poll also queried 1,100 voters representing the population about the main problems affecting the nation finding crime and corruption as the two leading concerns among virtually every person in the nation and may very well determine the outcome of the coming elections.

A TV3 poll on the weekend also gave a united opposition a commanding lead over the PNM, with 90 per cent of the respondents saying they will vote for Persad-Bissessar’s team.