Freddie wrong on NACTA’s poll

Feb 02, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Bisram did not get the assessment wrong in the outcome of the UNC’s internal election in Trinidad (Kaieteur News, January 27, “Pollster got it wrong”).
Rather it is Freddie Kissoon who is wrong for misinterpreting and distorting the findings of the Trinidad poll. He also distorted the findings of the Grenada poll which requires a separate response.
Let me point out that the language Freddie used in his letter is offensive and is an attempt to denigrate Bisram’s reputation. Having been proven wrong on numerous occasions, Freddie is yet to tender an apology expressing regrets for his deliberate distortions of facts.
Freddie, in typical fashion, quoted partial findings of the NACTA poll on the UNC election showing Panday 38%, Maharaj 27%, and Bissessar 23% to distort what the poll said. He did not quote the second set of numbers showing Bissessar with 74%, Maharaj 18%, and Panday 6%.
The poll did not say Bissessar receive 23%, Panday 38%, and Maharaj 27% as their support after the election. What the poll said was Bissessar was receiving 23% of loyalist UNC members and 74% dual UNC members who also belonged to another party. The poll assessed that 28% (or about 10,000) of the UNC voters list were dual members and 25,000 were loyalist members.
There was another poll released on the evening before the actual voting that gave Bissessar 46%, Panday 32% and Maharaj 21%. The poll also said that Bissessar’s number would significantly improve based on the turnout of dual members because the latest poll had her receiving 78% of dual members.
It was clear from those numbers that Bissessar would win although my release of two days earlier stated, “it was too difficult to determine who would win because of the inability of determining who would be allowed to vote”.
The dual members were not supposed to vote in the election. In the end, the election officers allowed them to vote and as such the landslide.
In the course of exit voting investigations at several polling stations, it was clear that Bissessar was leading by a landslide.
That projection was made by me on Radio Jagriti in the course of the voting as well as on live national TV (CNC 3) right after the close of voting hosted by Ken Ali and Francesca Hawkins.
Also, during the course of voting, individuals in the media and those attached to the different campaigns were kept abreast of the exit investigations showing a landslide victory for Bissessar. It was easier to determine the winner on voting day because we now knew who were allowed to vote.
In one NACTA poll published in Guardian, Newsday, and Express (December 27), Bissessar was found to be ahead by a landslide (72%). But the mass confusion about the eligibility of voters led to a reassessment and slipping in her numbers. Some half a dozen tracking polls followed but it was difficult to make an assessment.
The final poll said the election was “too difficult to call a winner”, but did point out that among non-voters Bissessar had overwhelming support and that this trend would filter through among voters.
Let me point out that finding and polling a few hundred of 35,000 voters out of an adult voting population of 1.1 million voters was a near impossible task. Hence the reason for the NACTA poll stating it “was unable to predict a winner”.
A poll is only an assessment of support at a particular time. The NACTA poll laid out the conditionalities of the assessment. Freddie deliberately left out the conditions connected with the assessment.
Let me note that my investigations uncovered” a lot of discrepancies on the voters list; electoral process was seriously flawed; and a party not ready for the elections. Bissessar’s camp threatened to go to court complaining about the process. Panday said the electoral process was sabotaged. Thousands of membership cards were found in the party’s office. Thousands of voters were turned away from the polling stations. Hundreds of voters told me that they switched from Maharaj to Bissessar because they did not want Panday to win and felt Bissessar had a better chance against him because Maharaj said he would keep Panday as Opposition Leader were he to win. But this should not take away from Bissessar’s gallant victory. Voters told me they wanted change in an anti-incumbent political atmosphere.
Regardless of the outcome, NACTA made a sincere effort to determine peoples’ views on the elections.
Vishnu Bisram

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