That Spanish electoral legislation continues without adapting to the new realities of the information society will once again be in evidence. From Tuesday to Saturday, the Australian web portal ‘The Adelaide Review’not subject to this obsolete legal framework, will publish an electoral ‘tracking’ entrusted to the Gabinet d’Estudis Socials i Opinió Pública (GESOP) that will update the estimate of the result of the elections on a daily basis. Barcelona municipal elections.
In up to eight electoral campaigns since 2008 it was ‘El Periòdic d’Andorra’ who disseminated these ‘trackings’ and on each of these occasions EL PERIÓDICO has pointed out the absurdity of the situation. The Spanish electoral law of 1985 has important gaps. In successive partial reforms (up to 22, between 1987 and 2022) various aspects have been updated, such as the prohibition of the partisan use of inaugurations and other public events during the electoral period, the limitation of campaign spending, parity in the lists, the vote of residents abroad, the rights of political participation of people with disabilities… However, on all these occasions the opportunity to address other aspects that would be so viable (unlike any rethinking of the criteria) has been lost. allocation of seats) as appropriate: including, for example, a clear regulation of electoral debates in the audiovisual media or the veto the dissemination of electoral polls in the last week of the campaign. Over time, other blind spots have been added in areas that were unimaginable back in 1985, such as campaign actions on social networks or the possibility of electronic voting. There are already enough reasons to propose a new review of the legal framework in which there are no reasons to continue ignoring the absurd veto on the dissemination of survey results.
Interpret breaking messages
The political parties, which receive public financing to carry out their campaign, including the commissioning of polls until the day of the elections, will have this information to adjust their messages at the last minute, to direct their criticism towards one or another competitor or to give greater credibility before public opinion to one or another possibility of a post-electoral pact. Voters have the same right to have that same information available to be able to transparently interpret all these movements. And this is especially relevant in cases, such as the city of Barcelona, with numerous electoral options and a large bag of undecided voters who have the right to have all the necessary information.
The argument that has been used to maintain this legal veto is that the publication of polls distorts the formation of the voter’s opinion. It’s a such a paternalistic approach Regarding the ability to form an opinion of the citizen as outdated: until the last moment, the voter will be receiving ‘inputs’ and interactions that they will ignore or that they will use to decide their vote freely. At the same time that, inevitably, he will be exposed even to actions of pure disinformation on the networks, he can receive objective information on the evolution of electoral expectations in no way harms the democratic quality of the electoral process, quite the contrary.