Fiji’s Electoral Commission has adopted a guideline to evaluate election-related opinion polls published in the country.
Published by ESOMAR/WAPOR, EC chairperson Mr Mukesh Nand says it is appropriate for Fiji.
The decision to adopt such a guideline comes in the wake of a complaint it received regarding an election poll published by a certain media house.
“Currently, there are no specific guidelines on public opinion polls in an election in Fiji, but despite this, the Commission has noted that media organizations publish public opinion polls,” Mr. Nand said.
In deciding on the guideline to work with, the EC stated that while it noted that both Australia and New Zealand have such guiding documents “the combined guidelines published by European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) and World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) is more appropriate for Fiji.”
“Having considered the nature of the impacted of opinion polls and the international standards around public opinion polls, particularly in relation to elections, we have decided that we will adopt for the purposes of the opinion poll guidelines published by ESOMAR/WAPOR, ” Mr Nand said.
The EC says that it will be publishing the opinion poll guidelines as well as the key requirements in relation to election opinion polling developed by ESOMAR/WAPOR on its website as well as the Fijian Election Office social media and website pages to enable all interested agencies to refer to and adequately comply when it comes to opinion polling for the 2022 General Election.
The Supervisor of Elections will also rely on these guidelines for his monitoring of the compliance with the Electoral Act, the EC said.
