On Conducting Public Opinion Polls

As of 18 September this year, the CRC have received notifications from 6 (six) legal entities regarding the conduct of public opinion polls, along with copies of the relevant documents:

1. The Public Policy Institute under the “Amanat” Party – survey method: face-to-face interviews, on the voting day, polling outside the premises and polling stations (exit-poll);

2. “The Institute of Complex Social Research – Astana” PF ICSR ‘SOCIS-A” – survey method: face-to-face interview, remote surveys using social networks and mailings, on the day of voting polling outside the premises and polling stations (exit-poll);

3. Public Association “Scientific and Research Association “Institute of Democracy” - survey method: ‘face-to-face’ interviews;

4. “Institute of Eurasian Integration” LLP - survey method: public opinion survey at the exit from the referendum polling stations on the day of voting, exit-poll;

5. KT Cloud Lab” LLP - survey method: telephone survey, survey theme: “Kazakhstan’s people opinion regarding the Address and the issue of NPP construction” (by the request of KazISS under the President of the RK);

6. Non-commercial joint-stock company “Kazakhstan Institute of Public Development” - survey method: telephone survey.

In accordance with the requirements of Article 7-1 of the Constitutional Law “On the Republican Referendum”, the public opinion polls related to the Republican Referendum must be conducted during the referendum’s preparation and conduction period in line with the norms established by the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

Hence, according to paragraph 9 of Article 28 of the Constitutional Law “On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan”, public opinion polls may be conducted by legal entities, registered in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, having at least five years of experience in conducting public opinion polls, provided they have previously notified the Central Election Commission in writing, attaching the relevant documents.

The notification sent to the Central Election Commission must include information about the specialists involved in conducting the polls, their experience in this field, the regions where  the public opinion polls will be conducted, and the methods of analysis used. 

When publishing the results of public opinion polls related to referendum, the media are  required to indicate the legal entity that conducted the poll, the individuals who ordered the poll and paid for it, the period when the poll was conducted, the method of collecting information, the exact wording of the question, the number of respondents and margin of error of the survey results.

Publishing the results of public opinion polls, predictions of referendum outcomes, or other referendum-related studies on the Internet is prohibited within five days before the voting day and on the voting day itself.

The violation of the conditions for conducting a public opinion poll related to the referendum may result in administrative liability (Article 120 of the Code of Administrative Offences).