At a time when the Election Commission has proposed to ban opinion polls during elections, a recent survey carried out by a city-based organisation reveals that 60 per cent of the people favour opinion poll ahead of the elections.
The survey results were presented before the media on Tuesday by the team leader Professor Rajanayagam, who also pointed out that one out of three persons expressed their disapproval over the conduct of opinion polls.
While 32 per cent felt that it helped read the thoughts of the people, around 27 per cent opined that it helped the electorate to take a clear decision. Around 25 per cent believed that it confused the already confused voters and 10 per cent thought that it favoured a particular combine or party.
Despite the apprehensions of the way the survey was being conducted, as much as 49 per cent were against the ban on opinion polls proposed by Election Commission.
While EC’s stand was welcomed by a minor group, it attracted negative criticism from the majority and one out of the four interviewed condemned the same.
Congress’s stand was because of the selfish approach, as the opinion polls didn’t favour it, according to 62 per cent. The BJP favoured it for a similar reason, said 76 per cent of the respondents, who said that the predictions in the media were in favour of the party. The survey was conducted in six zones — Chennai, Nagapattinam, Tiruchy, Theni, Tirunelvali and Coimbatore between November 7 and 10 with 200 participants in each zone.
The social-psychological model of survey devised by Rajanayagam was used for this survey. At the event, Neerottam, a compilation of all the surveys conducted by Makkal Aayvagam run by the Professor, was released by senior journalist Kumaresan.