It is fair judging

The system used to judge the more keenly contested Carnival competitions is the fairest one can find.

That’s the view of seasoned soca/ calypso judge Earl Paynter.{{more}}

In an exclusive interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, Paynter indicated that the ranking system, which is used to determine the winners of the ragga soca, soca monarch and calypso competitions is widely used around the rest of the region, and eliminates bias.

The results of a number of the competitions over the last few years have been rife with criticisms that the bias of judges has determined event winners.

Paynter said that this is highly unlikely with the ranking system, and it may be the closeness of the competition which may have produced unexpected results.

“A judge is a human being and they might have a little bias, (but) I definitely don’t think that a judge will deliberately come out to not score an artiste fairly… that’s why we have the ranking system,” Paynter pointed out.

According to Paynter, at the end of a competition, when the judges have already judged each performance, he/she will have ranked each artiste from first to 15th (more or less according to the number of competitors).

“The information is put in the computer and what the computer does for each one is throw out the highest and lowest score for each column; so you would end up with a median.”

That average score will be the final points for the artiste.

“Most of the other systems used to be the aggregate system, where we added up the points and the person with the most points win,” Paynter said.

“With things like aggregate you could easily manipulate the scores by just giving somebody high marks.”

Painter, who has served as a judge at the International Soca Monarch competition in Trinidad and Tobago, believes that most of the shows were keenly contested, that the winners and the runners up were separated by the closest of margins and that it what may have contributed to unexpected and unwanted results.

“I think what would have caused contention, especially with this year’s ragga soca competition, is that you have a case where two artistes’ scores might have been pretty close,” Paynter opined.

“If you have a competition that is pretty close and you come to that median, an artiste might get pushed over the top by a mere one or two points.”

Paynter also indicated that many fans and supporters of artistes are usually misled by the response to the artiste’s performance in the competition.

He said that the fans should find out what the judges are looking for throughout the competition.

“When you look at the other criteria, the song might be weak lyrically, or the melody may not be as powerful as it may seem, you know?”

The other criteria looked at during a competition include arrangement and performance.