Spain’s LOREG Rules for Election Polls & Media Use
Election Poll & Survey Regulations (LOREG Art. 69)
Election polls gauge the opinions of citizens, providing precise information that helps political forces in an election process choose the most appropriate strategy to gain voter support. Monitoring their implementation and dissemination is necessary, and they must be subject to rules ensuring sufficient rigor so that the public is not manipulated.
Article 69 of the LOREG (Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime) regulates the publication of election polls conducted between the announcement and the holding of any elections. Firstly, those conducting an election poll or survey under their responsibility must accompany its publication with a series of specifications:
- Name and address of the agency, public or private entity, or individual who conducted the survey and commissioned it.
- Technical characteristics of the survey, including: sampling systems, sample size, its margin of error, level of representation, respondent selection procedure, and date of fieldwork completion.
- Full text of the questions raised and the number of people who replied to each.
The requirement for full publication of the survey or poll is based on the need to provide detailed information so that voters can determine the reliability of the data contained therein.
The JEC (Central Electoral Board) is the sole competent authority regarding election polls, surveys, and their publication. The JEC must ensure they contain no falsehoods, deliberate concealment, or modifications, and enforce the ban on publishing or circulating surveys during the five days preceding the vote.
If the technical requirements stipulated by the LOREG are not met, the JEC will order the newspaper to publish, within three days, a correction announcing the origin and reason for the rectification. This correction, including the data referred to in Article 69 of the LOREG, must be published on the same pages as the original information.
A key issue arises when a survey is published on the last day permitted by the LOREG, meaning any required correction would fall within the five-day period when dissemination is prohibited by law.
The media involved have an obligation to publish or broadcast corrections required by the JEC within three days. If the media refuses to publish the correction, the JEC will refer the matter to the prosecution service if the act constitutes a potential criminal offense.
Electoral Campaign Media Usage Rules (LOREG)
Only those entities authorized by the LOREG for conducting election campaign activities can benefit from advantages and indirect subsidies from public authorities for conducting electoral advertising. To this end, municipalities must reserve specific public spaces for free poster placement.
However, parties, federations, etc., may use permitted commercial advertising spaces, provided this expenditure does not exceed 25% of the established spending limit.
Within seven days of the election announcement, the JEZ (Zone Electoral Board) must be notified of the available sites for poster placement. These sites will then be distributed based on the total number of valid votes received by each party, federation, or coalition in the previous equivalent election within the same district.