The Claim: Marcos Jr. takes lead in Hongkong and Qatar exit polls
Rating: FALSE
The exit polls in Hongkong and Qatar are unofficial and illegal.
The Facts: A newspaper report headlined that “Marcos camp claims taking early lead after unofficial exit polls in HK voting”
The Manila Bulletin said that the Marcos camp was the source of these “unofficial tallies.” (https://mb.com.ph/…/marcos-camp-claims-victory-abroad…/)
These were supposedly culled by Bryan Calagui from Hongkong and Annaliza Segura from Qatar.
Calagui posted in his Facebook post an image of a tally supposedly of an exit poll made by his team.
He captioned it “AS OF TODAY EXIT POLL HERE AT HONGKONG. 85% Vote BBM-SARA.” It was posted on April 10. (https://www.facebook.com/bryancalaguiofficial/posts/354189843421337)
Calagui said that he is a driver employed in Hongkong. In another account, he said that he is a digital game designer and a superfan of Bongbong Marcos.
Incidentally, the number of votes in the exit vote he and his team compiled exceeded the number of voters on that first day. (https://www.theglobalfilipinomagazine.com/…/exit-poll…/.)
On the other hand, Annaliza Segura, supposedly an OFW from Qatar (https://www.facebook.com/annaliza.segura.7) has been posting incredible figures of exit polls from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Canada without any explanations where she got them as if she is spewing rabbits out of a magician’s hat.
James Jimenez, COMELEC spokesperson tweeted that these types of information should not be relied upon unless the information came from a reputable survey firm. (https://twitter.com/jabjimenez/status/1513287999655903233…)
The survey does not clearly identify the number of respondents which makes it unreliable.
Furthermore, the said post does not follow election guidelines. According to Section 5 of R.A 9006 or the “Fair Election Act”, exit polls may only be announced after the closing of the polls on election day, which would be on May 9. (https://lawphil.net/stat…/repacts/ra2001/ra_9006_2001.html)
Why we fact-checked this: That a major newspaper would quote exit polls from two disreputable individuals who are avowed BBM fanatics is a careless thing to do. Other newspapers decided to immediately fact-check these polls.
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