Companies that carry out election forecasts or exit polls must submit a liability agreement
Ecuadornews:
The National Electoral Council (CNE) approved the amendments to the regulation on natural or legal persons that conduct exit polls and electoral forecasts. According to counselor Paul Salazar, the changes seek to generate assurances of the sample taken, certainty in the data and a reduction in margin of error.
According to the approved reforms, natural or legal persons wishing to make electoral forecasts and / or vote polls at the polls, must submit a registration form and an application form to the General Secretariat of the CNE or to the secretariats of the Provincial Electoral Delegations agreement of responsibility duly signed by the legal representative of these; which will be available on the institutional website (www.cne.gob.ec).
The National Statistics Office will review the submitted documents and verify compliance with the requirements established for the registration of their registration. Likewise, in order to carry out electoral forecasts and / or exit polls, natural or legal persons must specify the type and size of the national and / or territorial sample (stratified and weighted).
In the case of exit polls, the precincts where the sample is taken must be specified. Natural and legal persons, in order to fulfill this purpose, must also present the names, identity card and signature of the interviewers, the technicians in charge of carrying out the sample, as well as the legal representative of the polling company. In addition, the Plenary of the electoral body approved that the margin of statistical error of the results of the electoral forecasts and / or exit polls, should not exceed 3%.
The media that decide to disseminate the results of the electoral forecasts and / or exit polls will have to specify that this is unofficial information. Due to the information that is generated through the activities of forecasts or exit polls, the CNE can take any type of legal action before the electoral or ordinary jurisdiction and reserves the right to initiate any type of action.
According to the Councilor of the CNE, Paúl Salazar, the modifications seek to guarantee: assurances to the sample, territorial integrity, certainty in the data and reduction in the margin of error.
These documents will govern the voting for the popular referendum and the constitutional referendum on February 4. (I)