“Exit polls” based on hasty generalisations and fabrications should be discouraged

May 07, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The statement by GECOM Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally that only results released by the Guyana Elections Commission should be considered final and legitimate is most helpful, especially in light of attempts by the APNU-AFC to have a ‘parallel’ release of results via the social media.
So-called “exit polls” based on hasty generalisations and fabrications are particularly harmful, as in the case of the Disciplined Services balloting, and should be discouraged. This is fraught with danger and has the potential to create confusion and doubts as to the true polling outcome based on verifiable polling results.
The use of the electronic media to transmit polling day results has room for all manner of manipulation by unscrupulous elements. This medium of transmission of polling day results should be condemned by GECOM, elections observers and all those interested in a free, democratic and peaceful elections.
Still fresh in the memory of Guyanese were attempts by a senior official of the PNC who took to the airwaves to announce that the PNC had won the October 5, 1992 elections, even though a Carter Centre quick count mechanism gave the PPP/C a majority of the votes cast and the final results had not been released by GECOM.
There is an urgent need to guard against a repeat of such unsavoury practices which is not only counterproductive but could potentially create great harm to our democracy and our image as a politically matured and tolerant society.
Hydar Ally

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