Several Podemos leaders accused the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) of manipulating vote estimates for March, when the formation fell to 10% and lost third place amid a debate over reform. The law “only yes is yes”. Party Secretary General and Minister of Social Rights Ione Bellara asked CIS President José Félix Tezanos to explain the situation, which he considers “very serious”.
The controversy stems from a thread on Twitter by political scientist Carlos Fernandez Barbudo, in which he warns that the CIS “manipulated the March data on United We Can” voting intentions. Fernández Barbudo claims, based on the microdata that this institute made public, that the CIS stopped adding to United We Can the percentage of those who answered that they intended to vote for Sumari, Yolanda Díaz’s platform. And that now, without explaining the methodological change, CIS has decided to place those wishing to vote for Sumari in the “other parties” section.
Without this change, claims Fernández Barbudo, Podemos’ vote estimate would have been similar to the previous month (12.7%). elDiario.es contacted the CIS, which refused to make statements on the matter.
“If it is true that CIS manipulated the UP March data to tell everyone about our ‘down’ by law only if we are facing a very serious and unprecedented situation in a key public institution,” Bellara wrote on his Twitter account. It added that it expects “every explanation from Mr. Tezanos.”
Apart from Bellara, various leaders and the party’s official account have linked this alleged manipulation to the controversy over the reform of the “only yes is yes” law. This is the case of Lilit Westring, secretary of the organization of the party: “Tezanos manipulated the data and put the public institution of the CIS into question,” she wrote on Twitter.
The CIS doubled the PSOE’s margin over the PP in March, which is now 4.7 points compared to the previous barometer advantage of 2.3 points in February. The PSOE would get 32.7% of the vote, compared to 32.1% in February, while the PP would take 28%, 1.8 points less than the previous month, when CIS estimates gave it 29.8% of the vote.
As for United We Can, the barometer put Vox ahead of them for the first time since June, when Bellara’s party fell from 12.7% in February to 10% in March.
PP joined the criticism. Esteban González Pons, Undersecretary for Institutional Actions, assured that Podemos’ complaint implies that “the government itself admits that the CIS is manipulating the data”. “The question is what the prosecutor’s office expects to file a complaint against Tezanos for the prevention and illegal financing of the PSOE,” he added.
Source: El Diario
