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Government gags media from showing exit polls
Published on Wed, Oct 08, 2008 at 22:28, Updated on Wed, Oct 08, 2008 at 22:41 in Nation section
Tags: Exit Polls, Cabinet , New Delhi
ORDER, ORDER: All major parties had called for a ban on opinion polls ahead of the last General Elections.
New Delhi: The Union Government has decided to regulate exit polls done by television channels and newspapers during elections.
No media organisation can publish exit polls till the last phase of elections is over.
The government feels that exit polls influence the voters and can also be easily manipulated and so there will be no exit polls as long as the entire polling process doesn't get over.
"The idea is that this legislation when passed by Parliament will restrict the publication and dissemination of exit polls," Union Finance Minister P Chidambram said on Thursday after a meeting of the Union Cabinet in New Delhi.
The Law Ministry had proposed to amend the Representation of People Act of 1951 by inserting section 126 (b), "to restrict publication and dissemination of opinion and exit polls conducted during elections to the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies".
The proposal has the support of all major political parties. All parties had called for a ban on opinion polls ahead of the last General Elections and there was consensus that opinion polls should be banned from the day of notification of elections.
(With inputs from Ashok Bagriya)
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I am generally against any such law which restricts the freedom of the press and the public. But, some recent
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The decision to ban publication of the "results" of exit polls by the print and TV media is welcome. Elections
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