Đipa: Center for Elections and Public Opinion is a non-existent institution

The Center for Elections and Public Opinion (CIJM), whose results on the possible outcome of elections in BiH were published today, is a non-existent institution, Dino Đipa, director of Prism Research, an agency providing marketing, media, and social research services from Sarajevo, told the BiH news agency Patria (NAP).

According to that research for the territory of the Federation of BiH, the results of which were published today by "Dnevni avaz", the Alliance for a Better Future has 29 percent support, the Democratic Front 23 percent, the Party of Democratic Action 15 percent, and the Social Democratic Party 6 percent. It was stated that the survey was conducted by phone from June 1 to 5, and a total of 2,100 respondents were processed. 

However, Đipa doubts the reliability of this data and states that one political option is likely behind it all.

He says that one can talk about the results of any public opinion research only when the methodology of that research is completely objective and transparent. When you type the name of this organization into an internet search engine, you cannot find its website or any data about it.

- Nothing was said about the methodology, what the questions were, so these results cannot be seriously discussed and should be taken with extreme caution - Đipa said.

He says there are standards in the world on how and in what way public opinion research results are communicated to the public and what details of the methodology must be disclosed for the research to be assessed or considered valid.

- There will be a lot of manipulation with various surveys, which are conducted to find out or gauge public opinion on a certain issue. Unfortunately, some of our politicians use surveys to manipulate the public - Đipa stated.

The Vice-President of the Social Democratic Party of BiH, Damir Mašić, from whom we requested a comment on the published results, told us that he had not seen the results at all and could not comment on them. It is interesting that Amir Zukić, the general secretary of SDA, also, as he briefly told Patria, is not familiar with the published results.

- I also heard that there was something, but I haven't seen it - Zukić told us.