Edict on exit, opinion polls unlikely

MANDATE 2004

The government has decided that it will not issue an Ordinance banning exit or opinion polls because such a move will violate the fundamental right to free speech.

Instead it has asked the Election Commission to take some regulatory steps to ensure the consensus reached among all political parties asking for a ban was respected in spirit.

These regulations include more information about polls and the manner in which they were conducted, so that people reading them could form their own conclusions about the motivations of those who had commissioned and conducted the polls.

The matter was referred to Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee by Union Law Minister Arun Jaitely yesterday. The Election Commission had written to the government proposing that it ban all exit and opinion polls during the election through an Ordinance on the ground that these played a role in influencing voters. All political parties unanimously voiced the demand for a ban on these polls.

In his four-page opinion on the query referred to him, Sorabjee favoured upholding the fundamental right to free speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and said the proposed Ordinance would hit at the root of the fundamental right.

"Regard must be paid to the unanimous view of political parties but their view is not decisive on the question of constitutionality of a statute," Sorabjee said.

While opposing a complete ban, Sorabjee said certain restrictions could be imposed on the publication of these opinion or exit polls.

He said the Council of Europe's recommendation could serve as a model law by which all those who publish such kind of polls would be asked to name the political party or the other organisations or persons which commissioned the poll and paid for it.

He said the opinion poll or the exit poll should reveal the identity of the organisation conducting the poll, the methodology employed therein, the size of the sample, the margin of error and the date and period in which the poll was conducted.

The commission, after holding an all party meeting, had recommended to the government on 6 April for promulgation of an ordinance to ban opinion and exit polls as "publishing of the results of such polls during the period of election has the effect of influencing the minds of electors."

Rejecting the idea, Sorabjee in his opinion said whatever be the basis of the idea for the proposed ban, the government could not resort to an ordinance as such poll surveys were being conducted for the last several years.

Therefore, it was difficult to conclude that circumstances impel the necessity for urgent and immediate action for the issuance of an ordinance, he said.

Terming as "highly debatable" the constitutionality of such an ordinance, the attorney said "a serious and formidable objection to the proposed ordinance is that it would be violative of article 19(1)(a) of the constitution."