December 9, 2007: A public opinion poll
that suggests an increase in President Pervez Musharraf's popularity since
he stepped down as army chief and became a civilian president has one major
flaw: the US-based organization that ostensibly conducted the poll does not
exist.
Pakistani media received
a news item that according to a survey conducted by the US-based
International Public Opinion Polls (IPOP), 74 percent of those surveyed said
that Musharraf would get a boost in popularity as a civilian president.
The directory of polling
and survey research organizations in the United States does not include any
organization by the name of International Public Opinion Polls or IPOP.
Other than the alleged
Pakistan survey, IPOP has never conducted any other polls according to its
website or from detailed internet research.
According to the story,
the survey was conducted before Musharraf resigned as chief of the armed
forces and sworn in as civilian president last week. But the results were
only published on Thursday. The news story also claimed that the IPOP survey
was conducted from people of Pakistan's major cities through the internet
and by telephone.
Given the relatively low
access of Pakistanis to the internet and landline telephones, that
methodology for an opinion poll is highly suspect.
The poll was said to
have found that 79 percent believed that democracy would be strengthened in
Pakistan after Musharraf stepped down as army chief. The IPOP poll had also
claimed to find that 55 percent of those surveyed wanted Pakistan's
political parties to take part in an election under Musharraf as a civilian
president.
But the IPOP website
(http://www.ipublicpolls.com/) has no address or phone number for the
organization, which is unusual for a US-based Public opinion survey
organization. The PDF version of the poll posted on the website says that
IPOP is located in Boston, Massachusetts and gives its Zipcode as 02106.
The United States Post
Office website, which lists all US zipcodes, says that zipcode does not
exist.
