Dear Editor,
The debate about the poll in the SN, (for example ‘Further questions about Bisram poll’ by Dr Anand Parsaud (13.5.08), can only be a healthy development for Guyana. Pollsters should be grilled about their organisation and methodology, particularly if the subject-matter is attitude surveys with political implications. At the same time, users should remain respectful until they have the evidence to conclude otherwise. The tenor of some of the exchanges has been distinctly offensive and unhelpful.
In, for example, the UK, the results of opinion polls conducted by such highly reputable professional organisations as the National Opinion Poll and YouGov are first published in newspapers of all political complexions. As you would expect in a medium designed primarily for lay readers, there is only a brief reference to the abstruse intricacies of methodology. A full description is lodged in the company’s websites.