Polling Politics Is Unethical

Peter Wickham - head of CADRES

The two main purposes of this week’s PDC article are:

(1), to examine, to some degree, the extent to which Cadres’ and other polling organizations’ so-called national political opinion polling has been having, or has not been having, psycho-political voter effects on the minds of a selected number of adult persons in Barbados; and

(2), to therefore establish an intellectual political basis for arguing that this said type of polling has – to a great extent – been for years creating/been bringing about unambiguously clear, definite, flagrant violations of the principle of the holding of free and fair elections in this country, every time national or by elections have actually been held in this country, and whenever such polling has been carried out intermittently in the lead up to those said elections.

To support these arguments we have again gone and made use of the results of a non-random, non-scientific, person to person interview sample survey exercise  which was carried out by the PDC over the course of two days of this week – Tuesday and Wednesday – in Bridgetown.

This survey involved the polling  of 38 people – of which 12 females and 26 males took part – ranging from age 22 to 66 years old.

On the first day – Tuesday – 8 questions were put to a total of 19 respondents – 3 females and 16  males – and on the last day – Wednesday – 9 questions were put to a total of 19 respondents – 9 females and 10 males.

The additional question – which was added to the 8 that was asked on the previous day,  dealt with whether or not it was the view of those 19 persons polled on the last day, that certain sections of the local media or Peter Wickham/Cadres, Chapo,  have been  making greater impact than the other on those many voters who have been/ were or are still being affected/influenced to VOTE, or NOT to VOTE on the whole, or to VOTE for a candidate/party in a constituency election, or NOT to VOTE for any such candidate/party in a constituency election, as a direct result of the published findings and other things that have been, were or that are still coming out of these polls in some sections of the  local media.

With regards to these questions, these shall be reproduced a little later in this article.
We also found out in this survey exercise that there were also a total of 22 males and females – of various ages – who claim to have NEVER been interested or to have NEVER  been following national political opinion polling of the sort done by Cadres, or by any other political polling organizations in Barbados, e.g.  Chapo.

Anyhow, before we set about to provide the results of the opinions of those persons who were polled relative to those said questions, particularly, and  who were surveyed in regard of our seeking to establish means of of support for the two arguments outlined above, generally, we must repeat part of what we said in a 28/09/10 6:12 AM post under the thread: Where is the “Pathway To The Progress” The DLP Promised, that “it is our long held axiomatic position, that persons cum voters in this country must be able to make up their minds on how to vote or not, or on how to vote for a particular person or party or not, WITHOUT this very important political constitutional duty being brought into question by the actions of a stupid narrow minded few whose agenda is to be major unauthorized shapers of some aspects of electoral outcomes in this country”, and, furthermore, that “Mr. Clyde Mascoll has been the person – out of some others – who – in the entire history of political polling in this country – has had his political chances of winning a seat in parliament ( the 2008 election) most severely damaged by the dreaded wrongful actions of Cadres.”

Some members of our party are still  remembering the many  days when Dr. Richie Haynes of the now defunct NDP used to be extremely and rightly critical of many aspects of many polls that were conducted then, and which seemed to have been placing his party at a distinct disadvantage in terms of what was supposedly unfavourably thought by respondents about his party, and which would have had, in his view,  the effect of helping to do great  damage to his party’s overall chances of winning seats in any elections ahead, as opposed to any thing that was found by respondents to favour the DLP and BLP, and which had therefore had the effect of somehow enhancing reducing their overall chances of winning or losing more seats or the government in the elections ahead then.

We have long held the view that conducting of national political opinions polls must be outlawed within a certain time – say, 3 months, of national or any other constituency elections in this country.

That is why we can state that some time ago on another blog ( Barbados Allegiance) we had said the following: “that a future PDC Government will – along with the necessary inputs of the relevant stakeholders in this country – enact and publish laws BANNING THE CONDUCT OF POLLING BY SO-CALLED POLLSTERS AND THEIR AGENTS, AND THE PUBLICATION BY MEDIA HOUSES AND OTHER MEANS OF COMMUNICATIONS INCLUDING BLOGS, OF FINDINGS OF AND OF NATIONAL OR OTHER KINDS POLITICAL PUBLIC OPINION POLLS THEMSELVES within, say, 3 months of any elections in this country.”

And, furthermore, had said – in the same article on BA – but with a few corrections – that “outside of that period but where national or any other type of political public opinion polling will be allowed, ( that) THE BANNING OF REFERENCES TO CANDIDATES, PARTIES, AND SUCH LIKE IN THE PUBLICATION OF FINDINGS BY NATIONAL OR SUB NATIONAL MEDIA INCLUDING BLOGS ( will be done) , so as to prevent as  little favour or disfavour or help or harm as possible from these sources, etc. to be done to candidates, parties and others who will likely run in ( whatever ) upcoming elections in Barbados”

Well, having been said, we now come to the results of the survey that was carried out by the PDC, but, first, here are the 8 questions plus one that were part of the survey and that were put to respondents by us:

1) Do you follow – on occasions – via certain sections of the media – Nation Newspapers/ Starcom Network Inc – information about national public opinion polls  done by Cadres, Chapo, etc?
2) Do you perceive information relative to any of these polls about which political people/leaders some respondents prefer to be Prime Minister; which party they support; findings about which party is likely to win the general elections if elections were to be called at anytime soon; which political people/leaders are deemed to be friendly, on a rating scale, etc.??
3) Do you believe the ensuing polling/sampling information responses to be true or not, on the whole, esp. as they are supposed to reflect the truth about how the wider population thinks?
4) Do you hear or perceive other persons any where the country talk about any of this information or these findings that come out of these polls and that are published in some sections of the local media?
5) Have you voted previously ( at least in one election)?
6) Does perceiving any of this poll information, any of these poll findings in the media or perceiving others talk about this information or any of these findings at any time, affect the way how you previously voted or not, voted for a particular candidate over another or not, voted for a particular party or not?
7) If so, to what extent did such affect the way you voted? Significantly, modestly, or slightly?
8) Do you think such information, any of those findings do affect the way how some others vote or not in the manner of 6 above?  If yes, to what extent? Significantly, modestly, slightly? And,
9)   Do you think that it is either the media, or Peter Wickham/Cadres, Chapo,  that have had the more/greater impact than the other on those many voters who were affected/influenced/ who are influenced to VOTE, or NOT to VOTE on the whole,

So, here are the results of the polling exercise.

In respect of question 1, all 38 persons surveyed said “yes”.

In regard of question 2, all 38 persons said “yes”.

In regard of question 3, whereas 12 out of 38 persons believed that Wickham/Cadres/Chapo  information, poll findings and such like are  true in the way that is explained above in question 3, 17 out of 38 persons said such was not true, whereas the remainder (9 persons) were unsure or did not know.

Whereas, most of those who thought such information was true felt that it was because it, the findings were representative of what most people thought, were accurate – most of those who thought that the information was untrue thought it, findings were highly flawed and biased, designed to elicit particular answers that Cadres/Chapo wanted to see, to sway the minds of many voters, etc.

In respect of question 4, 27 out of 38 respondents said they normally hear other persons discuss talk about information and findings coming out of the polls, with 11 persons saying that they don’t hear persons speak about such information and findings coming out of the polls via some sections of the media.

With respect to question 5, 26 out of those polled have previously voted – with some being established voters, many being die hard supporters – and with 12 persons not having ever voted before.

With regard to question 6, out of those 26 persons, only three were influenced how to vote by such polling information – two were females. Most people claimed to be not influenced at all; to be  die hard DLP/BLP party supporters, to have independent political mindsets, to critically look at how the parties perform inside or outside of government and then vote accordingly, etc.

With regard to question 7, the extent was significant in only two cases out of the few that were influenced- one male and the other female.

With regard to question 8, 34 out of 38 persons thought that such polling information by Cadres, Chapo did influence some others, whereas only 2 persons thought otherwise – one person thought persons had made up their minds already – 2 others expressed the mere possibility of such happening. The vast majority thought that many others were followers of the majority, gullible, dependent on others for leadership in these regards.

With regard to the 9th question,   5 persons said Peter Wickman/Cadres, 5 persons said the media, 2 said  both, and the rest were uncertain.

Having relayed such information, it leaves the PDC to say that out of those whom polled only one person has ever been polled by Cadres, a young female, and only one has ever been polled by Chapo – a middle aged male.

What has also come out of this exercise is that Cadres was found to have done some survey  polling for the Ministry of Social Care via the Country Assessment of Living Conditions Program, and while we are not imputing anything negative about Wickham/Cadres and the Minister of Social Care, it still makes one wonder how could Sinckler be the person next preferred to be Prime Minister after Thompson – coming from the last Cadres poll  – when – in our carrying out this unscientific polling exercise – he was highly unfancied and ill favoured by every person who sought to raise such an issue with us during this exercise.

Finally, from the responses provided to us, it is clear that it has been established that so-called national public opinion polling does have a profound psycho political voting effect – via certain sections of the media – via those persons  who perceive it and say it to be objectively so – those who are themselves not affected by  it – on voter results in this country esp. among the undecided voters/ floating voters in this country, and does show that even without the knowledge of many of the respondents in this survey that this type of polling does flagrantly violate the holding of free and fair elections in this country whenever elections are held in Barbados.

With such evidence in hand, our party’s quest is to therefore ultimately seek political legal constitutional redress esp. over the latter  fundamental matter in the interest of greater freedom and democracy in this country.

We oblige.