Former Labor leader David O’Byrne remains more popular with voters in Franklin than current leader Dean Winter, a recent poll shows.
The poll, carried out by social research firm Community Engagement in June and obtained by Pulse, shows O’Byrne, who now sits as an independent, ahead as the preferred leader of Tasmanian Labor.
O’Byrne topped the list with 28.3% support, while Winter trailed on just 15.7%.
Other potential leaders – Ella Haddad, Josh Willie, Anita Dow and Shane Broad – each polled below 10%.
More than a third of the 872 people surveyed said they would prefer “someone else or none of these”.
O’Byrne briefly took over as Labor leader in June 2021 but stepped down the following month and subsequently resigned.
Winter drew his strongest support from Labor’s own Franklin voter base, picking up 37% of Labor supporters compared to O’Byrne’s 15%.
The poll also asked about the Liberal leadership. Premier Jeremy Rockliff was the clear front-runner with 42.8%.
But 42.3% of voters said they would prefer “someone else or none of these” when given the choices of Eric Abetz (8.9%), Michael Ferguson (2.6%), Felix Ellis (1.8%) and Guy Barnett (1.6%).
The survey, conducted from June 24 to 27 with a margin of error of 4.1%, covered residents in the Franklin electorate, including Kingborough, Clarence City and the Huon Valley council areas.
Both will contest the southern Tasmanian electorate at Saturday’s state election.
