A prediction of the Constitution Commission of the Congress It proposes to modify the Organic Law of Elections and allow the publication and dissemination of surveys to be carried out up to three days before the elections. Is the measure positive? What would be its impact on the vote? On the subject Peru21 He talked with Guillermo Loli, director of Ipsos opinion studies.
A prediction of the Constitution Commission proposes to make the survey publication deadline and allow its dissemination in media up to three days before the election, is it enough?
I have a personal position and I think that the guild of the pollsters is also in that line, that we must have the same treatment as the advertising or the participations of the matches before the closure that is 48 hours. Arriving 3 days before seems to me an advance compared to the previous law that is up to a week before the election, so if they manage to approve the project we would be progressing because we already know historically that there is a large group of voters who decide in recent weeks and especially in the last week. It would seem very positive to let the voter have one more element to make their decision, because it is not only the survey that should prevail when deciding a vote.
Those who at some point opposed this flexibility indicated that knowing the results of the surveys can influence the citizen at the time of their vote, but currently with social networks it is impossible to maintain that secrecy and in any case it can lead to a misrepresentation of the data.
Indeed. I think that is a controlling thought. There are many politicians who unfortunately always want to control the decisions of the population, there is a vocation of controlism. This is openness, freedom. As noted, the networks bring everyone closer to information in a much more immediate way and with an additional appearance, there is a lot of fake, very false news that could be mixing; So, it is better to be transparent, consume obviously serious media and verify your information in more classic media.
It has also been said that spreading surveys on such close dates can influence the voter and mention the case of Pedro Castillo.
In the previous surveys of 2021, Castillo was already announcing his presence since February and the trend was marked; At the beginning a little slower and as he approached the day of the choice much faster, as a phenomenon that we have already lived in the foam country that cannot stop, the famous outsider that begins to grow and obviously there enters to carve the mouth to mouth information. In the last week Pedro Castillo was almost tied, and the day before Ipsos historically makes a great simulation of votes, he was practically tenths, there could not be said who was the first one. Unfortunately this week of Veda greatly harmed the knowledge of the population and obviously there are some politicians who take advantage, misrepresent and do not tell the truth of what happened. This extension, this freedom to have knowledge, I think it will be useful for the voter to know how trends go, how his candidate is going, how they are in the first places and be able to have an additional element to make the final decision of the day of the election.
Another aspect that is being touched in the Constitution Commission is the elimination of dry law and we remember that an Ipsos survey revealed that 64% of the population was in favor of requiring their validity that is 48 hours.
In general, the population has been consulted and is in favor of stopping prohibiting. I believe that it is a trend in the universal world of seeking freedom, that the citizen can responsibly decide their actions. There is a lot of trade and business that is lost with these prohibitions. Recall that the vast majority of Peruvians are from the informal sector and lose strong amounts of money with this prohibition, so it also seems positive to me that the law can be reviewing.
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