KATHMANDU, Oct 13: The Election Commission (EC) has requested not to conduct opinion polls about political parties and candidates. 

The EC has stated that conducting opinion polls and publishing results of such opinion until the election is completed is prohibited. This comes a day after the nomination of election candidates is completed. 

"Contrary to the Code of Conduct, it has been found from the EC’s monitoring that some people have used social media to conduct opinion polls regarding political parties and candidates and published the results," the EC said in a statement, while warning action against those involved in activities that are against the election code of conduct. 

The EC has asked not to conduct polls, disseminate related materials and publish them on social media as it will have an adverse effect on the elections scheduled to be held on November 20.

There is a practice of conducting such polls by taking opinions of sample voters in order to check the popularity of individual candidates and predict who may get elected in the polls. The EC has been banning such polls arguing that polls like this will affect other voters and affect holding free and fair elections. 

In the local elections held earlier, a section of media and organizations had conducted polls. The EC had then sought explanations from those media houses or organizations.

 
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