Dear Editor,

Unlike in Guyana when only two polling organizations conducted polls for that country’s elections last year, there are five polling organizations conducting polls in Trinidad. This is good to institutionalize polling in that nation. But each of the polling organizations is producing findings quite different from one another leaving voters confused.

According to a Selwyn Ryan poll out earlier this week, the ruling PNM and newly formed COP are neck and neck in popular support 34% to 30% with 5% for the traditional UNC led by Basdeo Panday. But those figures don’t reflect ground reality. And Prof Ryan said the poll was conducted before the UNC launched its campaign on Oct 7 when a mammoth gathering showed up to cheer the party’s candidates.

A Peter Wickham poll has the COP beating the PNM 38% to 30% with UNC at 10%. A Derek Chadee Guardian newspaper published poll financed by Ansa McAl has the COP beating the PNM 34% to 28% with 20% for UNC. A Bill Johnson poll has the PNM ahead with UNC in second place. A NACTA poll has the PNM leading the UNC 40% to 30% with 15% for COP. The election is on November 5. So it would be interesting to find out which of the polls come closest to the actual results.

Apart from the NACTA polls, none of the other polls gave the number of seats each party is projected to win. But Ryan, Wickham, and Chadee suggest the COP will win the elections while NACTA and Johnson say the PNM will win the elections. NACTA projects the PNM winning 25 to 27 seats and the rest of the seats going to UNC. The other polls seem to disagree suggesting the UNC will not win any seat. In fact, COP has boasted that it will win all of the seats traditionally won by the UNC. Trinis will find out if they are right on the evening of November 5.

Yours faithfully,

Vishnu Bisram