EC to seek two-week gag on opinion polls

The EC is expected to submit to the govt this week its opinion formed after going through the feedback of various political parties on the issue. It would be seeking restrictions on opinion polls as done for exit polls that are allowed only after the polling ends in all phases.

Updated on: Nov 7, 2013, 02:29:50 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Election Commission (EC) is likely to ask the government to ban opinion polls a fortnight before elections to ensure a level playing field for all candidates in the fray.

The government’s bid to ban opinion polls through the election watchdog had created a political storm with the BJP and some other parties likening it to curbs on freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution.

The EC is expected to submit to the government this week its opinion formed after going through the feedback of various political parties on the issue. It would be seeking restrictions on opinion polls as done for exit polls that are allowed only after the polling ends in all phases.

HT Edit: banning opinion polls will serve little purpose

It was learnt that many parties had emphasised opinion polls can be banned from the day of notification of elections or a fortnight before the polling if not from the day elections are announced.

But while putting across its view, the EC would make it clear amending Representation of People’s Act to ban opinion polls would be the government’s call.

Read More: Modi slams Congress over seeking ban on opinion polls

Unlike bringing social media under EC scanner, the ban on opinion polls cannot be implemented through an executive order. The reason is that the Supreme Court had nullified a ban on opinion polls in 1998 saying the EC does not have powers to impose such restrictions. The court had said that the ban can be imposed only by amending the Representation of People’s Act.

All political parties in 2004 had agreed for a ban on opinion and exit polls but the government changed the law only to prohibit exit polls after protest by television channels.

Recently, Congress and several other parties demanded banning opinion polls, but faced fierce opposition from the BJP that said the Congress sought a ban because its “rout in the polls was imminent”. Congress countered criticism saying it had only given its opinion sought by the EC on the issue.

Read: Should opinion polls on elections should be banned? Here's what readers say

But the EC negated the perception the background paper on opinion polls was its idea. It was learnt the law ministry had asked the commission to hold consultations with parties on opinion polls after attorney general GE Vahanvati gave a legal view favouring the restriction.

Read More: stung by opinion polls, Congress wants curbs; BJP cries 'loser'

Majority of the 80 political parties who gave their feedback on the background paper sought a ban or restriction on opinion polls during election time. They had argued the opinion polls disturbed the level playing field by concentrating only on major political parties and overlooking important regional or smaller parties.

Several parties had questioned the veracity of such polls: are they table-top surveys or genuine exercises. Another issue they raised was two surveys broadcast at the same time often presented entirely different results. Some parties wanted to know who funded these surveys.

Read More: Opinion polls should be conducted in objective manner, says NCP

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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