The effects of polls on Burkinabe populations during election periods

Opinion polls play an important and often controversial role in electoral contests. It is one of the main tools of political communication in democratic societies, where citizens receive much of their information during election campaigns. In Francophone Africa, pre-election polls are increasingly visible in the public arena. However, the release of their results during the election period has been the subject of criticism and controversy questioning their credibility: opinion polls published in the media can influence voters. The polls conducted by the Apidon Research and Survey Institute commissioned by the newspaper “Bendre” ahead of the November 2015 presidential and legislative elections in Burkina Faso drew sharp criticism from the public. Many citizens denounced them for being unreliable. Given the interest shown in this political communication tool in Burkina Faso, the authors sought to investigate the extent to which the publication of the polls influenced voting behavior. By interviewing respondents in the capital Ouagadougou and the rural province of Loumbila, the authors were able to study the reactions of different social categories of the electorate. Analysis of the results showed that the impact of published pre-election polling data on voters was insignificant. At the same time, voters had a deliberately negative perception of the role in political life of the publication of pre-election public opinion monitoring figures. The results of the research revealed the problem and showed the necessity of its further study. On the one hand, future research could focus on the impact of opinion poll results on political actors to determine how they are used. On the other hand, it is useful to see whether journalists follow professional rules when dealing with such information.