(a) Define opinion poll.
(b) State five factors that make the conduct of public opinion unreliable in West Africa.
Explanation
(a) Opinion poll is a scientific method of measuring the wishes/choice of the people on a given social, political and economic issues e.g. popularity of a government or predicting election results.
(b) (i) Lack of expertise knowledge by officials conducting the polls.
(ii) Absence of reliable technology which may produce accurate results.
(iii) High level of illiteracy and ignorance among the people.
(iv) Problems of analyzing statistical data.
(v) Lack of objectivity among respondents.
(vi) People get scared of being interviewed.
(vii) Poor communication network.
(viii) Possibility of manipulating the figures generated or gathered during the exercise.
(ix) The selection of the sampling may be misleading.
(x) Respondents may be highly influenced by cultural, religious or traditional sentiments.