NEW DELHI, February 10: Nearly 50 per cent of the voters are influenced by opinion polls while casting their franchise.This was the conclusion arrived at in a survey conducted by the Press Council of India (PCI) through a management consultants company to find out to what extent that pre-poll surveys influence the voters in their decision to votes.
The survey was carried out in three metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, taking a random sample of 2,594 men and women of voting age and belonging to a cross section of the population.
According to a PCI release, the confidence level of the survey is about 98 per cent.
It said the survey showed that 70 per cent of the respondents had read opinion polls. More than half of them trusted the opinion polls that they had read.
An ``alarming'' reaction is that almost half of the respondents said their voting decision was influenced by the opinion polls reports.
The release said that fact that about half of the respondents get influenced intheir political choice by poll surveys indicates that an opinion poll can decisively change the voting pattern. The report of the organisation said the survey was carried out, in the midst of the ongoing debate in the media on the desirability of conducting pre-election opinion polls and publishing the results in the media. Those critical of this process have pointed out that there was danger of voters being influenced by these polls when it comes to their own voting decisions, and of these opinion polls being misused by vested interest groups.
In this situation, they survey was carried out to find 1. If newspaper readers have actually read the recent pre-election opinion polls, 2. If newspaper readers trust the opinion polls they have read, 3. If newspaper readers feel these opinion polls will influence the way they vote, and 4. In the case of one opinion poll published recently, if readers of that newspaper correctly remember the results of that opinion poll.
The survey was carried out among 2,594 menand women of voting age in Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. These cities were chosen because there is a large number of newspaper readers in these cities, and the particular opinion poll whose recall was being checked was published in a newspaper with editions in all three cities.
The survey was carried out by a professional data collection agency between February 4 and 6.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
