ActionSA has unveiled an Election Integrity Bill aimed at tightening regulation of political opinion polling, a move that may result in the public having reduced access to polling data.

Introducing the bill, ActionSA MP, Lerato Ngobeni, said the party was: “proud to introduce the Election Integrity Bill, a legislative proposal aimed at safeguarding South Africa’s elections from unscrupulous political polling practices and protecting the integrity of our electoral democracy, which relies on citizens’ fair, transparent and informed participation.”

Ngobeni said the bill responds to: “the dissemination of unverifiable or manipulated data” that has increasingly been used by: “unscrupulous political actors and potential foreign interests as tools for misinformation, manipulation and electoral interference.”

She warned that South Africa currently lacks any legal framework governing the conduct and publication of opinion polls, placing it: “behind countries such as Brazil, Canada, France, and Italy who all have regulations for political polling.”

The proposed legislation would amend the Electoral Commission Act and the Electoral Act to create a new regulatory framework. It requires all published polls to disclose their sponsors and methodologies, establishes an Office of the Polling Ombudsman within the Electoral Commission to oversee polling, and bans the publication of opinion polls within seven days of voting day.

Polling experts told The Common Sense that the free dissemination of poll data was an important safeguard in any democratic society and that placing control of such data in the hands of the state would undermine public access to such information.