New Delhi: After the Election Commission banned exit polls between February 10 and March 7 this year with regard to Assembly Polls, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju on Tuesday said that exit polls cannot be conducted and publicized in the state by means of print and electronic media or disseminated in any other manner in the above mentioned period.
Raju in a statement said, “Under provisions of section 126 A of the Representations of the Peoples Act, 1951 “Exit polls cannot be conducted and publicized by means of print and electronic media or dissemination in any other manner starting from February 10th, 2022 at 7 AM to March 7th, 2022 at 6.30 PM.”
Clarifying further, he said that display of any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey in any electronic media is prohibited during the period 48 hours, including the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in each of the phases in connection with the elections.
On January 28, the Election Commission banned exit polls for five states– Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur– that will witness elections in the coming days.
In an order dated January 28, 2022, the poll body wrote, “No person shall conduct any exit poll and publish or publicize by means of print or any other manner, the result of any exit poll.”
The publishing of exit polls has been prohibited from 7.00 am on February 10 to 6.30 pm on March 7- i.e. during the polling period. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Elections to 403 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats will be held in seven phases on these dates: February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27; March 3 and 7.
Uttarakhand’s 70 seats and Goa’s 40 seats will go to polls on February 14 in a single phase, while 117-member Punjab Assembly on February 20. A 60-member Manipur Assembly will go to polling in two phases on February 27 and March 3.
