BIRODI: Practice of Presenting Inexact Picture of Public Opinion Present in Serbia

Snow in Belgrade, Serbia(BETAPHOTO/MILAN TIMOTIC/EV)

The Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI) on Jan. 12 warned of the practice of presenting imprecise pictures of public opinion in Serbia, which had been contributing to poor election turnouts.

BIRODI said that “(non)representation in the media of the opposition parties, that is, negative presentation of the opposition, which not rarely is reduced to labeling, aims to make a part of the electorate, who would not vote for the ruling party and its leader, abstain from voting.”  

“Retaliation conducted by media outlets against public figures, experts and activists of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) because of their analytical and critical opinion of the authorities aim to intimidate citizens, that is, to undermine the public opinion and citizens’ readiness to present their true beliefs in public polls, without which there can be no exact research of public opinion,” BIRODI specified.

According to the bureau, such practice aims to lower the election turnout among the voters who would not vote for the ruling parties, therefore the real support to the Serbian Progressive Party, ranging between 25 and 30 percent, turns into a backing of 50 percent and above.

BIRODI further said that the operation did not stop there, the outcome of which was that “every second Serbia’s citizens above the age of 18 supports the position that it is wiser not to publicly express your opinion,” that is, 48 percent declared themselves as apolitical or antipolitical and could not identify their ideological orientation.