By Kurt Campbell
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Executive Member of the main Parliamentary Opposition Party – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) – Joseph Harmon on Tuesday, March 4 questioned the validity of recent polls conducted by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) and this very news entity (iNews Guyana).
NACTA just under a week ago had released results of a poll which showed that majority of citizens were in support of the passage of the Anti – Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) amendment Bill which currently sits in a Parliamentary Select Committee awaiting the drafting of additional opposition proposed amendments and the US Leadership and Democracy Project which was rejected by the administration.
More recently NACTA released results of another poll which showed that support for incumbent Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) was at 46%, while the APNU stood at 38% and the Alliance for Change (AFC) a mere 4%.
To this end, Harmon contended that the polls were designed to engender such results. He said it was all about giving the PPP moral bolster. He questioned who were the persons interviewed and credibility of the pollster Vishnu Bisram.
“A sample was constructed of 450 voters to yield a demographically representative sample of the population (43% Indians, 31% Africans, 16% Mixed, 9% Amerindians, and 1% other races). The survey was conducted at random by several interviewers (in face to face contact) with many years of experience in survey interviewing” NACTA had said.
Meanwhile, at the weekend iNews released the results of a poll which it ran over a week period which found that majority of citizens are not in agreement with at least one of the three major amendments proposed to the Anti – Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)
During the poll, persons were asked “are you in favour of the Opposition’s proposal that Guyanese and local businesses should not be allowed to take around more than $2M” to which 72% percent of participants voted no, 26% voted yes and a mere two percent were undecided.
Harmon opined that the iNews poll/question was also designed to generate the results it did.
He is right which sane person would vote yes on this poll, if the bill was good as it is why was it passed and assented to when they had the majority?They did not want to ruffle their friends feathers, so now they are being threathened they want to force it through with all the loop holes, It has to be amended to make it strong and even when it is amended they have to show that they are taking action or else they will still be blacklisted.So the poll that was taken here is baloney