Pollster by Santiago Perez will be Under Investigation

Yesterday, the Attorney General’s Office reported that they had opened a file to investigate the work that the company of Santiago Perez did during the Ecuadorian referendum held on May 7.

The survey was hired by Gamatv, TC Television, and Cable Noticias channels, seized by the State, to conduct an ‘exit poll’ of the query.

At 17:00, on that Saturday, Santiago Pérez released the results of his survey to the entire country.

His information gave an overwhelming victory to the Government’s proposal. On average, the victory was 60% for the Yes option, while No hardly reached 40% of the support.

At 21:00, the National Electoral Council issued a quick count that drastically reduced the advantage of the Government. Upon completion, the official count of the records confirmed the narrow victory. The advantage of the No over the Yes was just six points far in the questions that Correa was supposed to have the greatest support.

For this reason, Rafael Antuni (Pachakutik), Luis Villacis (MPD), Clever Jiménez (Assemblyman in Zamora Chinchipe) presented a request to the Attorney General, Washington Pesántez, to open an investigation into the dissemination of these data.

Yesterday, in an official bulletin of the Attorney General, it was reported that the Prosecutor of the Unit for Crimes against the Public Administration, Gustavo Benítez, began an inquiry to “investigate the alleged manipulation of information” made by Santiago Perez’s pollster.

The prosecutor Benítez called Pérez to declare his testimony tomorrow. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9h00 in the building Patria de la Fiscalía.

Source: Daily El Comercio