Opinion Poll, Exit Poll and EC

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll, is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals.

An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for.

A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll.

Marcel van Dam, Dutch sociologist and former politician, is credited with having invented the exit poll, and being the first to implement an exit poll during the Dutch legislative elections on February 15, 1967.

EC Guidelines on Opinion and Exit Poll:-

1. No result of any opinion poll conducted at any time shall, be published, publicized or disseminated, in any manner whatsoever, in or by any print or electronic media, 48 hours prior to the first day of poll for the general elections and till half an hour after the closing of poll in all States and Union Territories.
2. The organizations and agencies shall also be free to conduct exit polls. But the result of any such exit poll conducted at any time shall also not be published, publicized or disseminated, in any manner whatsoever, in or by any print or electronic media, at any time from 0700 hours  (from the first day of poll for the general elections) and till half an hour after the closing of poll in all States and Union Territories
3. Any organization or agencies conducting any Opinion Poll or Exit Poll, while publishing, publicizing or disseminating the result of any such poll, must indicate the sample size of the electorate covered by such polls and geographic spread of survey so conducted. They must invariably give the details of methodology followed, likely percentage of errors, the professional background and experience of the organization or organizations and the key professionals involved in the conduct and analysis of the poll.

Source:-
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_poll
3. http://eci.nic.in/archive/instruction/recent/media/pnxitpoll_FINAL.html