To: Mohamed Waheed Hassan
Cc: Jeffrey Epsteinfieevacation grnal .con cotti
From: James P. McGee
Sent Sun 2/10/2013 7:04:19 PM
Subject• RE: Preliminary Baseline Polling Memorandum
President Waheed:
Welcome back.
You are correct. The memorandum I sent to you was only a starting point and covered the most
prevailing issues from an outside view looking in. Unfortunately, whenever corruption and
religion get raised in an election (as Nasheed has done here) they always become dominate issues
and have to be dealt with. That being said, there will definitely be a need to review the first draft
with your team to identify the other important islands issues such as education, health care, and
tourism just to name a few.
Additionally there will be a blend of horse race questions which will pit you and Former President
Nasheed as well as any other potential candidates head to head while also measuring current
favorability and unfavorable ratios for each candidate.
With respect to the length of the survey / poll that will depend on the level of interaction of the
poll universe (i.e. Maldives Voters we are contacting) and their desire / non-desire to interact and
discuss the prevailing issues with your pollster.
We have contacted an associate that we have done a good deal of very successful polling with in
the past including polling in islands locations. He is reviewing the preliminary memorandum that
was sent to you and I will probably loop him in when we have our next Skypc Conference Call
with your team so that he can begin to finalize a baseline survey instrument. He is also looking
into call centers in southern India to possibly conduct the survey. I informed him that we will have
to have the poll conducted in the native language so he is aware we have that as a requirement.
I will wait to hear back from you and we will set up a follow up call at a convenient time for
everyone.
EFTA_R1_00332071
EFTA01902104
McGee
From: Mohamed Waheed Hassan [mailto:
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013 10:05 AM
To: James P. McGee
Cc: Jeffrey Epstein; Jason Cincotti
Subject: Re: Preliminary Baseline Polling Memorandum
Just arrived from Cairo and looked at the questions. I will be going through them with my team
tomorrow. 1 suppose you will want us to consider other areas and questions which we think might
be useful such as education and health.
I know we want be able to and may not even be desirable to make the questionnaire too long. Is
there a number we should try to limit questions to.
Good intro for each section, generally accurate but as you said I will not be too concerned at this
stage about all the facts.
This is a quick message.
We will get back to you tomorrow.
Best regards
Waheed
Sent from President's iPad
On Feb 8, 2013, at 10:56 AM, "James P. McGee" wrote:
President Waheed:
As we have entailed, and as I spoke with Jeffrey about, the next step we must get
underway with is a substantial Baseline Survey/ Poll to get a true idea where things
stand for you and your opposition in the September Presidential Election as well as
identifying what the prevailing issues are and will play out in the upcoming
campaign.
Attached is a very detailed memorandum that was prepared by one of my partners,
EFTA_R1_00332072
EFTA01902105
Jason Cincotti with input from other 3' party sources which lays out some very
frank (and I am sure in some cases) unpleasant summaries about the prevailing
issues facing the Maldives. It also includes some draft suggested (but not finalized)
questions for the survey that we will need to review and discuss. It is very
important that you read this memorandum in an objective way and it is also very
important that you not to take it personally.
When polling in such a delicate political environment like the one you are currently
facing, it is important to understand that we don't want to shy away from those
sensitive areas, in fact we want the opposite — We want the true answers to those
questions to understand what the electorate is thinking about so that we can make
sure that you are the candidate that best speaks to those issues and connects with
that electorate.
To put it another way: This isn't about the fluffy clouds and rainbows questions,
instead this about the nitty-gritty questions that are going to make the baseline poll
produce the data we can use and that is what we are doing with some of the
suggested draft questions in this memorandum.
We will also add in some of the standard horserace questions including the head to
head with you and Nasheed, etc... that are always a part of any poll but it is the
questions around the issues that will produce the most important data for us.
We would need to review the attached draft questions with you and the designated
members of your team to make sure we have localized and finalized the baseline
questions we decide on and ensure the type of answers we are looking to get out
of the survey. We can discuss the memorandum at a time that works for you and
your team. Just let us know what will work best for you and we can set up a time
to review and discuss.
Please email me back after you have reviewed the attached memo
I hope all is well and look forward to talking to you soon
McGee
EFTA_R1_00332073
EFTA01902106
<Maldives Issues-Polling Information (02.01.13).docx>
EFTA_R1_00332074
EFTA01902107