After the successful completion on the Phase 1 of General Elections 2019, few exit polls are doing rounds on social media. One such survey by PARC (Political Analysis & Research Center) is predicting YSRCP party win in Andhra Pradesh State Assembly elections. Let analyse the details of this survey.
The archived version of the post can be found here.
Claim: PARC Exit Poll survey of Phase 1 2019 General Elections in India
Fact: Firstly, Election Commission of India in its press note released by on 8th April 2019, notified that no exit polls to be published between 7.00 A.M. on 11.04.2019 (Thursday) and 6.30 P.M. on 19.05.2019 (Sunday). Secondly, no organization by the name PARC was found on the internet with the given address and there was no response to phone calls to that number. So, the claim about Exit Poll results in the post is FALSE.
The rules regarding the publishing of exit polls are included in the section 126A of THE REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT, 1951. The rules clearly states the no person shall conduct exit poll or publicize the result of any exit poll by any means during the period notified by Election Commission in this regard.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) in this regard notified that
the period between 7.00 A.M. on 11.04.2019 (Thursday) and 6.30 P.M. on 19.05.2019 (Sunday) as the period during which not exit poll shall be conducted and publicized by any means.
When searched for any organization by the name PARC (Political Analysis & Research Center) as shown the social media post exists in New Delhi, we couldn’t get any results on Google search or on Social Media. The contact number mentioned in the exit poll document isn’t working and there wasn’t any response to our email addressed to parcindia@gmail.com. It’s very unlikely that a well know organization would be using gmail as their email domain rather than their own name. All this evidence along with ECI guidelines cast serious doubts about the existence of any such organization and their exit poll.
Hence, the exit poll results of the phase 1 of General Election 2019 by PARK are deemed False.
