The Central Election Commission (CEC) said the opinion poll that is to be carried out on November 1 does not match the mechanisms of conducting an exit poll as, when the voter is called, there is no certainty that the voter took part in elections. The institution noted that it didn’t authorize the conduct of such an exercise and warts the media outlets that intend to present information about such a poll.

The CEC reserves the right to notify the Center for the Protection of Personal Data, the Audiovisual Council and the law enforcement agencies so that they document and investigate this case.

According to the CEC, the goal of an opinion poll carried out during the electoral period is to find out if the voters supported a particular candidate. The restriction on publishing such information during five days until elections, which is stipulated in the Electoral Code, is aimed at excluding influence on the voter’s opinion, Under the Electoral Code, the vote is secret and the public authorities and also other subjects involved in electoral processes are obliged to ensure the confidentiality of the vote.

“Therefore, starting from the fact that the secrecy of voting is a guarantee of the free expression of voters based on which the power in the state is formed, while the phone numbers (at least a part of them) are personalized, such a method generates the risk of compromising the secrecy of voting and of identifying the person by the phone number and therefore goes against the aforementioned principle,” the CEC said in a press release.

According to the CEC, the questioning of voters when exiting polling stations (classical exit poll) cannot be equal to telephone polling as no methods that could help identify the voter are used in the first case.