Exit polls legal, SC rules

Exit polls are legal.

This was the ruling of the Supreme Court yesterday on the exit polls conducted by ABS-CBN Channel 2 , which joined hands with The STAR during the 1998 presidential elections.

Voting 10-4 with one abstention, the High Court thumbed down Minute Resolution 98-1419 of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which barred such polls because they apparently condition the minds of the people that certain candidates are winning even before the official counting of ballots.

Former Comelec chief and now Justice Bernardo Pardo inhibited himself from the proceedings.

It was during Pardo's term that the resolution was issued. He had said that exit polls were dangerous because the outcome of the survey may be made to favor some candidates.

"Quite the contrary, instead of disrupting elections, exit polls -- properly conducted and publicized -- can be vital tools for the holding of an honest, orderly, peaceful and credible elections; and for the elimination of election-fixing, fraud and other electoral ills," Justice Artemio Panganiban wrote.

In a 26-page decision, Panganiban branded as "off-tangent" claims by government lawyers that such an exercise would "indirectly transgress the sanctity of and secrecy of the ballot.

"(ABS-CBN) does not seek access to ballots cast by the voters. The ballot system of voting is not at issue here. The reason behind the principle of ballot secrecy is to avoid vote-buying through voter identification," he said.

Exit polls are conducted after a voter has left the polling precinct. The respondent can either disclose who he voted for or simply turn down the request. Because of such a poll, a voting trend could be determined in a particular place.

"In exit polls, the contents of the official ballot are not actually exposed. Furthermore, the revelation of whom an elector has voted for is not compulsory, but voluntary. Voters may also choose not to reveal their identities," Panganiban said.

He added: "Indeed, narrowly tailored counter-measures may be prescribed by the Comelec, so as to minimize or suppress incidental problems in the conduct of exit polls, without transgressing the fundamental rights of our people."

The SC en banc also invoked the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech and of the press, pointing out that government lawyers failed to substantiate their allegations that exit polls are dangerous.

"The freedoms of speech and of the press should all the more be upheld when what is sought to be curtailed is the dissemination of information meant to add meaning to the equally vital right of suffrage," it said.

Lawyers of the television station brought the case to the Supreme Court when the poll body turned down their request to lift the ban on exit polls.

The lawyers said there is yet no prohibition in the conduct of exit polls in the Election Code. Besides, they said the Comelec resolution muffled free speech.

"Nowhere in the Omnibus Election Code does it state that conducting an exit poll is illegal. Neither is there any proscription of such an act in any of the other provisions of the said code," the lawyers said.

"It must be stated that in airing the results of exit polls and other newsworthy election stories, ABS-CBN is merely fulfilling its role as a guardian of liberty and truth, bringing information to the general public swiftly and without bias," they added.