COMMENT: Insights into Afrobarometer polling

With respect to this article, the April 24 release (Afrobarometer Dispatch paper number 141 and available at http://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/publications/Dispatches/ab_r6_dispatchno141_uganda_social_services.pdf), refers to analysis of the Public Development Agenda component of our Round 6 survey conducted in May 2015, while the latest release refers to a survey of public support for some of the many reform proposals that have been variously proposed, and are relevant to the quality of our democracy and governance.

With respect to this article, it should therefore not be expected that the batch of 12 questions on public support for law reforms should have been part of the spontaneous mentions of public development agenda, as the two sets are from two separate constructs, polled almost two years apart.

How then are poll questions selected? The general rule-of-thumb is that poll questions need to be relevant, scientifically testable interrogations of plausible hypotheses.

And this could be to the discretion of researchers or study population or (frankly) both. The most critical element however is that questions – or the research setup in general – should avoid bias.

All stages in the research process – including statistical analysis/reporting – should avoid bias. The question of eliminating bias is often addressed through scientific rigour referred to as a methodology applied in the study.

Lastly, the assertion in this article that ordinary people cannot form valid opinions on issues of democracy or governance is perhaps over-stated.

Afrobarometer Working Paper #124 (available at http://afrobarometer.org/publications/wp124-understanding-citizens-attitudes-democracy-uganda, see page 17 – 18) shows that expert views on these kind of issues follow a similar trajectory as views held by ordinary citizens.

In sum, it would be wrong to ask ordinary people how to formulate these 12 proposals into new laws – that could be for technocrats – but polling public support for these proposals is technically possible.

And lastly, allow me note that the Afrobarometer is a pan-African network of research organisations now working in 36 African countries.

This network conducts and disseminates its own research, and does not accept funding from governments or political parties/groups and is wholly donor funded.

The Afrobarometer core objective is to 1) conduct high-quality scientific research of public opinion on the African continent, 2) provide a voice to public opinion in the policy-making arena and 3) provide capacity for research in Africa.

Since the year 1999, the Afrobarometer has conducted over 200,000 interviews with ordinary Africans in over 145 surveys across 36 African countries, and still counting.

The network is wholly peer-reviewed, has an international advisory board and takes technical support from the University of Cape Town and Michigan State University. More info at www.afrobarometer.org

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Francis Kibirige is the National Coordinator of the Afrobarometer in Uganda and the Managing Director at Hatchile Consult.

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