Should Opinion Polls be banned in the weeks before an Election?

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Leper

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I'm sick of opinion polls. I don't believe in their accuracy- the latest one 3% up or another 3% down. They serve no function other than to get people talking. The only Opinion Poll of value is the election itself. Is it time we banned Opinion Polls?
 
they are never done correctly in ireland, look how accurate the exit polls were in the UK but RTE couldn't even do exit polls properly, they were hopelessly inaccurate after the european and local elections.
 
I wonder if sf were trailing well behind in the latest opinion poll would this have even being posted? I suspect not...
 
blueband said:
I wonder if sf were trailing well behind in the latest opinion poll would this have even being posted? I suspect not...
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To be fair to leper I don't think it has anything to do with who is trailing who in the Opinion poll,
 
blueband said:
I wonder if sf were trailing well behind in the latest opinion poll would this have even being posted? I suspect not...
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I would have posted this irrespective of who is performing good or bad in the polls. The polls are almost irrelevant to most if not everybody. They are a means to sell more newspapers. The real opinion poll is the general election itself. Why have an advance copy that's not 100% correct?
 
Our Single Transferable Vote system makes it harder to predict elections then it is in the UK with their first past the post system.
Our system is designed to give strong Parliaments and weak Governments.
 
Purple said:
Our Single Transferable Vote system makes it harder to predict elections then it is in the UK with their first past the post system.
Our system is designed to give strong Parliaments and weak Governments.
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STV system is complicated when compared to FPP Vote, but it is a relatively fair system and fairer than FPP.

I don't know what you really mean re "strong Parliaments and weak Governments."
 
Leper said:
STV system is complicated when compared to FPP Vote, but it is a relatively fair system and fairer than FPP.
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That may be true but it make it harder to predict outcomes as there are more moving parts.

Leper said:
I don't know what you really mean re "strong Parliaments and weak Governments."
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Th system we have gives the Dail more power by virtue of the fact that it is very hard to get a majority government. That makes it hard for any government to affect real change. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. The solution is a stronger committee system but the people in their wisdom, of lack thereof, don't like that idea.
 
In former times leading up to Local and European elections there was always a buzz around our constituency. But, these two elections are very quiet. We've had only one physical caller (a former Lord Mayor) and the rest just drop fairly bland leaflets into the letterbox and run. I would say the political parties would welcome anything including opinion polls to get some sort of interest going.

But, people have well educated children who are professionals and even they cannot get decent mortgages. They see tents along the Canal in Dublin being cleared one day and repopulated the next. Ireland is being advertised as a rich nation, we see our Gardaí being prosecuted for doing their legitimate duty etc - I'm not rich and I'm not badly off, but somevbody's telling lies. There are none of the usual safe screens to be hiding behind this time. The politicians will have to earn their votes. We are not all stupid, you know!
 
Agree.

Seems a very quiet campaign so far.
 
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