Open and real-time surveys

Two days before the first round of voting in Chile’s presidential election, ABC posted a voting intention survey on its Internacional page, predicting a victory for the communist candidate over the three conservative candidates when combined with the second round votes. … The public approval rating is 56%. This demoscopic work will reach the people of Chile, where the law prohibits the distribution of public opinion polls 15 days before an election, and the law will become obsolete. This law is not only restrictive and outdated, overtaken by current global channels of communication, but also based on paternalistic public opinion thinking that is considered immature by those seeking to prevent real-time tracking of public opinion polls. Chile’s case was extreme, with 15 days of silence, but Spain, too, is stumbling on the opaque stone left by its most robust democracy, and it is up to voters to decide when and how to reflect.