Presidential Election Exit Polls
According to local news sources, exit polls will be finally introduced into Armenia for February’s presidential election. Actually, such rumors denied by USAID when approached on the matter in the past few months have finally been confirmed. Yesterday, U.S. Charge d’Affaires Joseph Pennington met with the prime minister, Serzh Sarkisian, to discuss the matter. Referring to a report from Panorama.am, Unzipped welcomes the news.
For the first time, exit poll will be conducted during presidential elections in Armenia. This offer was made by current US envoy in Armenia during his meeting today with Prime Minister and presidential hopeful Serj Sargsyan. Armenian Prime Minister accepted the offer, adding that even if US did not offer it, they would have sought assistance of specialised agencies to conduct exit poll. This is certainly positive development. If the results of exit poll, which are usually announced immediately after polling stations closed, would be similar to official results published by Central Electorate Commission, this would add to legitimacy of conducted elections.
Interestingly, Social Science in the Caucasus also discusses the issue of exit polls in neighboring Georgia and it’s worth pointing out that while such developments are to be welcomed, nothing can compare to conducting proper elections in the first place.
