Electoral board suspends rule banning pre-campaign poll publication

The Dominican Republic's Central Electoral Board (JCE) has provisionally suspended a contentious article in its regulations that prohibited the publication or dissemination of electoral polls outside of established pre-campaign and campaign periods. This decision comes as the legality of the restriction is under judicial review.

The suspended article, the thirteenth of the "Regulation establishing the procedure for the registration of firms or polling companies and the publication of polls in electoral matters," approved on May 22, explicitly forbade the "publication or dissemination, by any means, of polls or opinion surveys for electoral purposes outside the legal deadline established for the pre-campaign period." This prohibition also extended to internal polls conducted by political parties.

The JCE's resolution, adopted by majority on August 20, means these specific publication bans and their associated sanctions are temporarily unenforceable. However, the board stressed that this is a "provisional, temporary, and exceptional" measure. Other aspects of the electoral poll regulations, including those concerning the registration of polling firms, technical requirements, and methodologies, remain in effect.

The controversy ignited when Justicia Sin Fronteras challenged the article before the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The TSE, however, declared itself incompetent to rule on the matter, deeming it a concentrated control of constitutionality issue reserved for the Constitutional Court. The JCE cited potential "difficult to repair consequences" and "legal uncertainty" if the ban remained active during this legal debate. The board also acknowledged the potential impact on "the exercise of freedoms of expression and information" as a reason for the temporary suspension.