THIS was sent to KN but was not published. Critiques by M. Maxwell and others of NACTA polls are welcome but they must be fair and balanced.  Attacks on my character are inappropriate and I am surprised that Maxwell has descended to this level. Maxwell said that “he can set up a front organisation,” do a poll and release the results. Who/what’s stopping him?  He should conduct a poll so we can compare the findings with NACTA’s. The election results will determine which of the two (if any) is correct.  That is the only way to verify the accuracy of a poll on an election.
Any pollster or social analyst will tell Maxwell that merely offering an alternative sample is not “proof”, as he claims, that another sample is wrong or “was manipulated”.  If Maxwell has so much confidence in his sampling methodology, then he should conduct a poll utilising it or join his ‘mentor’ Freddie Kissoon in so doing.
Maxwell attacks me for being biased.  He needs to state how and why and against whom.
When Maxwell defends the PNC and appeals to Guyanese to vote AFC, is that not notoriously biased?  When he attacks the PPP or Bisram, without proof, is that not selective or slanted bias?
Maxwell has decided to put my polls under the microscope and I welcome that.  However, when Maxwell’s party, the AFC, hired Dick Morris to conduct a poll and the findings, which showed that the AFC was on the verge of victory in 2006, were proven woefully inaccurate by the election results, Maxwell did not comment on the methodology of the poll or the sample, nor did he point out any bias. In fact, five years later, Maxwell is yet to acknowledge that Morris and his financiers engaged in bogus polling whereas Bisram’s poll findings were verified by the election results.
When the AFC financiers hired CADRES to conduct a poll last year and the poll showed the AFC almost statistically tied with the PNC and PPP in support, Maxwell did not comment on the sample or methodology.  Is CADRES’s use of a sample of 28% Indians, not sample manipulation or tainted/biased sampling? Apparently not, for sampling and polling expert Maxwell.  Since the Morris and CADRES poll results showed that the PPP could not win an election, those polls in Maxwell’s view, were accurate, unbiased and untainted. 
On the other hand, the NACTA poll is wrong simply because the findings show the PPP would win the elections. I challenge Maxwell to point to one NACTA poll that was proven wrong by election results in Guyana. I challenge Maxwell to hold up the CADRES poll results against NACTA poll results for the upcoming elections. If the CADRES polls are more accurate I would stop doing polls, but if the NACTA polls are more accurate Maxwell should cease  writing in any capacity in the Guyana media.
I agree with Maxwell that “a polling entity must speak for itself”.  NACTA has an excellent track record. A polling entity develops a reputation from its record.  If it is successful, it lives on and that is why NACTA is around.  If it fails, it perishes.  For example, Nunes and Nunes Poll said the ONR would win the elections in Trinidad in 1981. The ONR got zero and Trinis haven’t heard from Nunes and Nunes again.  CADRES in its poll in Trinidad in 2007 said the COP was on the threshold of victory. The COP got zero. CADRES has not polled in Trinidad again. By the way, NACTA said COP would get zero, UNC 15, and PNM 26.  That was the actual result. Dick Morris is not returning to Guyana.  I urge APNU and AFC to bring CADRES back to Guyana to poll.
Maxwell advises that NACTA register as a company in Guyana. Is Maxwell, suggesting that the findings of NACTA polls would be different if the organisation was registered in Guyana ? Were Dick Morris and CADRES registered in Guyana?  Would registering the organisation change the views of respondents? For Guyanese to know of Maxwell’s expertise, would he disclose his training and credentials relating to polls and experience and track record? Mine are/have been in the public domain for  20 years.
Maxwell is absolutely right in stating that I have an agenda in polling, but unlike his, mine is not insidious. My mission, as was TRPI under Dr. Ramharack, is to institutionalise polling in Guyana and to get Guyanese to accept polling as an aspect of political participation in our developing democracy just as is done in developed democracies.
How could a man with this kind of slant and bias condemn me?  Even worse, he attacks me but is silent against inaccurate polls which portray the PNC and AFC in positive light. He badgers people to vote AFC and tells them why they should not vote PPP. And yet he has the audacity to say I am engaged “in a dangerous attempt to push or pull public opinion in a particular direction”. Maxwell’s opinions on Bisram and on polls should be consigned to the garbage can.