Don’t blame surveys, work on your bet’s campaign instead, says Octa’s David

Screengrab from Pandesal Forum-Kamuning Bakery Cafe Facebook Live

MANILA, Philippines — Octa Research fellow Guido David on Wednesday took up the cudgels for survey firms which recently came under fire on questions about the methodologies that they used in conducting their election surveys.

David, who served as one of the faces of the independent COVID-19 analytics group, said that rather than “shooting the messenger,” supporters of candidates who are lagging behind in election surveys should just work on promoting their bets.

“If your candidate is lagging in the surveys, then that means that there should be more work done to promote this candidate,” he said without delving into specifics during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum.

“Instead of saying that the survey must be wrong, we should flip the question and ask why are people choosing other candidates instead of the candidate I prefer?” he added.

READ: Do surveys make sense?

David also lamented what he called an “attack” on the survey firms, even the reputable ones.

“We should not really be attacking the messenger per se, but we should maybe look at the picture and try to analyze how this particular information can help us even if your candidate is lagging behind the survey, you should treat this as information, as an additional information that could help you,” he pointed out.

For his part, Pulse Asia president Ronnie Holmes said candidates lagging behind the surveys could still bank on the “underdog effect.”

“If you think your candidate is lagging behind, the underdog effect means those who are supporting the candidate will work double-time to see that their candidate’s numbers will be higher,” Holmes said.

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EDV