Spain’s 1985 Ban on Poll Publishing Undemocratic

As millions of Spanish voters head to the polls for 2008 General Elections, although most have certainly already made up their minds whom they will cast their ballots, Spain’s 1985 Election Law imposes a blanket ban on the publication and broadcasting of opinion poll data for five days preceding an election.  Otherwise, pollsters can continue to carry out these polls and a small select few politicians and political party members only are allowed to view the results. 

There are a number of verbal complaints calling the ban ‘undemocratic’ despite its more than 20 years of existence.  One leading critic claims such a ban as Spain’s publishing of poll findings, “…. creates first and second-class citizens”.  This argument made public by Juan José Toharia, the managing director of the Metroscopia consultancy.

Toharia would prefer that Spain follow the United States lead where there are no limitations or bans imposed on poll reporting at any stage of the campaign including Election Day.  Toharia went on to call such prohibition by Spanish law as “absurd”. 

Spain is not alone in maintaining such a law — or in being criticized for it.  In 2007, election officials in France, which also has a pre-election ban on poll data, filed a lawsuit against a publication that violated the prohibition.

Oddly, the election board lost the case in court while online media in Belgium and Switzerland seized the chance to boost their French readership by publishing their own polls.  Elpais.com also reports a few attempts to circumvent the ban such as one by “The Periódico de Catalunya announced this week that it will circumvent the ban by having its Andorran sister newspaper, Periòdic d’Andorra, publish its poll results online for any Spaniard with an internet connection to see. Spanish daily El Mundo, meanwhile, has cited a poll published by British newspaper The Times that, curiously, was carried out by the same consultancy it habitually uses for its own polls.”

Two other supporters are quoted in the same news story as stating, “We need to change the law. I see no reason why polls can’t be published and the law can’t stop them being published on the internet,” notes Julián Santamaría, a sociologist. “Trying to impose barriers is a lost battle,” argues Teordoro Luque, a professor of market research at the University of Granada.

Perhaps the law will be a matter of future debate, as it appears those in Spain, similar to those in the United States of America, believe freedom of the press is the basis of any democratic society.