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Survey veteran Dr Vishnu Bisram. ,
NACTA pollster Dr Vishnu Bisram on Wednesday deflected criticism of his organization and its methodologies leveled by UNC officials, saying in a statement to Newsday: Nobody likes polls that are unfavorable to them.
“In general, political parties and candidates in developing societies do not like opinion polls that are not favorable to them.
“The last poll in Trinidad was not favorable to UNC as currently constituted. The nation feels that if the UNC party is reconstituted under a strong credible leadership, it will sweep the next election.”
Bisram said a survey was a collection of views from a scientifically constructed sample, conducted by interviewing people at random to represent the makeup of the population.
“All polls have a margin of error. The error depends on the confidence level and sample size. Generally, polls are conducted at a 95 percent confidence level. The larger the size, the smaller the sampling error. In general, the margin of error for a sample size of 500 is four percent.
He said pollsters generally state their methodology, with NACTA polls conducted face-to-face rather than over the phone.
“The gender composition was 50-50 male to female. The ethnic composition was 41 percent Indian, 39 percent African, 19 percent mixed, one percent other.
“If the poll had shown UNC winning, would it have been attacked? Political parties are free to accept or reject the findings. It is merely a guide to popular support at a given point in time. The parties may reject the findings at their own risk.”
Bisram said his latest poll had found the PNM and the Prime Minister extremely unpopular, but voters do not want the UNC as an alternative.
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“PNM has not rejected the findings that show that the party is unpopular. Most political figures in the UNC, privately, including more than half of its MPs, inform me that the findings are correct.
“If the opposition were united under an acceptable credible leader, like a Gary Griffith or Phillip Alexander or Vasant Bharath, or Bhoe Tewarie or Fuad Khan or any other high-profile national leader, the PNM would be blown up, ” said Bisram.
Bisram said the survey provided qualitative data as opposed to quantitative data because the interviewers were still in the field.
“NACTA has been doing surveys in Trinidad since 1995. It was founded by Trinidadian and Guyanese teachers in America to do research and organize lectures on socio-political issues.
“The concept and initiative was of a Trinidadian Vassan Ramracha. Some of the teachers, including Ramracha, conducted surveys in Guyana since 1990. Other teachers conducted surveys in Antigua, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, etc. I have done surveys in Mauritius, Fiji, India, New York and other places,” said Bisram.
