A chara, - I believe that you owe your readers an explanation in respect of the conduct of your recent opinion poll in which you placed the Sinn Fein vote in the North of Ireland at 8 per cent.
Can you now explain how your "scientific" poll translated from 8 per cent to the reality of the Sinn Fein support at 18 per cent.
Is the margin of error in these polls now 10 per cent? Perhaps in future you should just donate the money spent on these polls to a worthy cause and for the price of a phone call Sinn Fein will give you an accurate prediction of what our percentage of political support really is.
Just so that your readers receive some accurate information concerning the political map of the Six-Counties, I include the following realities. Sinn Fein is now the largest political party west of the Bann, the largest party in Belfast and the only party to have increased its share of the vote, both in percentage of the poll and in numbers voting for the party over the period of the last five elections. - Is mise, Martin McGuinness MP,
Sinn Fein Assembly Members for Mid-Ulster), Derry City.
As Mr McGuinness knows, such polls do not claim to measure political support but what people state as their voting intentions. We can speculate why so many people choose to deny their support for Sinn Fein when polled. Caveats on the understating of Sinn Fein support in polls are regularly issued by commentators in The Irish Times and elsewhere. Thursday's exit poll estimated Sinn Fein support at 14 per cent with a tolerance of plus or minus 3 per cent. -Ed. IT.