Exit polls blasted for huge margins of error

Pollsters in Bangkok yesterday came under attack for their high margins of error in reporting exit-poll results that gave the Pheu Thai Party a landslide win in the capital.

Democrat Party spokesman Buranat Samutrak called on pollsters to come up with reasons their exit-poll results were so wrong.

Exit polls by several pollsters reported that the Pheu Thai Party would see a landslide victory in Bangkok by winning 30 of the 33 seats and the Democrats just three.

In fact, the vote count at 9pm showed the Democrats defeating Pheu Thai by 23 seats to 10 in Bangkok.

Buranat called on the media to report only the results of actual vote counts.

Analyses on the error margin of exit polls of several pollsters at 7.30pm showed Sripathum Poll carrying an error margin of 13.8 percentage points, Abac Poll's error margin was 17.7 percentage points, Dusit Poll carried a 20.68-percentage-point error margin and Nida Poll 22.88 percentage points.

Turakij Bandit Poll director blamed uncontrollable factors for the high error margins. He said that although the sampling process followed standard procedures, pollsters could not get enough Democrat Party supporters to take part in the exit polls, whereas Pheu Thai supporters such as red shirts who are politically active were more willing to speak their minds.

Dusit Poll director Sukhum Chaloeisub agreed, saying most Democrat supporters were not accessible, while Pheu Thai backers were more politically expressive.