UNC chairman Davendranath Tancoo on Wednesday flatly dismissed a recent statement by opinion pollsters NACTA which claimed the UNC's best chance of winning the next general election would be to replace Kamla Persad-Bissessar as leader and to contest the election in alliance with other parties.

Tancoo told Newsday, "Any real opinion poll will show that nobody takes NACTA's comments or their alleged 'polls' seriously.

"Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, Tancoo said, "I wish Rowley would fall for it like he fell for the fake Bill Gates grant phone call, and call elections now.

"NTA head Gary Griffith, when asked if his party had formulated a position on election alliances, replied no."This party is just three months old. It would be improper that a party that has just been formed would start considering connectivity with other political parties.

"This party was formed because we understood the importance of the bridge constituency where there were 150,000-200,000 persons who may have a desire to be affiliated to a party other than the PNM or UNC."

He said the NTA's present focus was to facilitate such voters.

After the NACTA poll, UNC PRO Dr Kirk Meighoo questioned the validity of NACTA and its procedures.

"What sort of polling methodology does he use? How is the sample chosen? What is the poll’s margin of error? Can the polling data be analysed and vetted by third parties?" Meighoo asked. He also wanted to know whether anyone could say they had ever been contacted by NACTA for any poll.

He said NACTA head Dr Vishnu Bisram's latest statement had not included any numbers for analysis or scrutiny.

"Furthermore, who is NACTA? Why don’t they have a web page? What does this North American Caribbean Teachers Association do? Where are its headquarters? Who are its members and how many are there?"

Newsday sent queries to Bisram, but up to press time had received no reply.

The post UNC dismisses NACTA poll predicting election defeat appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.