The People’s Progressive Party has accused Stabroek News of publishing the results of what it calls a “bogus poll,” which it says is a move to “confuse and mislead” the people of this country.
On Friday, June 4, this newspaper published the findings of a poll conducted in March this year by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Research Services Inc (CADRES), which showed that the governing PPP/Civic continued to command the single largest bloc of voters but had lost significant support since 2006, and that an alliance between opposition parties could produce an outcome in their favour.
In a statement yesterday the PPP said that it wished to draw attention to the resemblance between this poll, and what it called the “fraudulent” one made public by the AFC in 2006, which gave the PPP/C 36% of the vote. The CADRES poll gave the governing party 38%.
The 2006 poll was conducted by Dick Morris, and the statement went on to say that at a press conference Morris had claimed that the AFC had overtaken the PNCR-1G in terms of voter support, although he and the AFC were “dead wrong,” since the PPP won 54.5% of the votes.
The PPP said that the Morris poll had also predicted that the AFC would hold the balance of power in Parliament, a prediction which was wrong.
The CADRES poll projected that if an election were called in March the AFC could hold the balance of power.
“This type of bogus poll,” the statement said, “reflects the desperation of some sections of the opposition as it notes the big and enthusiastic reception that the PPP/C is getting wherever it goes.” It then alluded to the Cabinet outreach in Region 3 on June 2, which it said was an example of this, and asserted that the popularity of the PPP and the PPP/C government had “never been so high.”
In a comment on the PPP allegation of a “bogus poll,” Sunday Stabroek editor Anna Benjamin said that CADRES of Barbados was a reputable polling organization with a recognized track record in the Caribbean.
