Call for tougher polling rules in Indonesia
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INDONESIA— A member of the Indonesian Public Opinion Survey Association’s (Persepi) newly-formed ethics council has called for new rules that would prevent polls paid for by political parties from being released to the public.
Dedy Nur Hidayat told the Jakarta Globe: “Ethics are agreed upon by pollsters. What we can do now is better control the survey methodology. In the ethics council our concern is whether there is politically or economically motivated methodology manipulation. In such cases, the pollster should be warned and sanctioned.”
His comments come amid mounting criticism of voting intention surveys that have been conducted in the run-up to next month’s presidential election.
Pollsters have faced accusations of inaccuracy and bias in their results and methodologies. Associations such as Persepi have promised greater scrutiny of their members in response to the claims, while regulations were introduced last year to force polling organisations to register their affiliations and funding sources.
