ELECTION PREFERENCE | Search engine data does not account for non-internet users

ELECTION PREFERENCE | Search engine data does not account for non-internet users – statistician

May 4, 2022 , 09:43 PM

By Clarist Zablan, News5 Digital

(May 4, 2022) – A statistician from a major pollster on Wednesday advised against relying on search engine data such as Google Trends to know the voter preference in the Philippines, noting that a third of the adult population has no access to the internet.

Ana Tabunda, research director of Pulse Asia, noted that Google Trends on election-related search can only account for around 67% of the eligible voters who have access to the internet, making its results limited.

Google Trends also only account for a user’s interest on a trending topic or candidate but not their actual preference, she said.

“Pwede nilang tignan yung information na yun pero tandaan nila na magkaiba yung nacacapture kasi nga di nacacapture ng Google Trends yung mga hindi nag-aaccess ng internet,” Tabunda said on CignalTV’s One PH channel’s program “Sa Totoo Lang.”

Google Trends data showed Vice President Leonor “Leni” Robredo being the most searched presidential candidate in the May 2022 polls in the past week, followed by Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.

This is slightly different from Pulse Asia’s pre-election survey released early this week, showing Marcos Jr. leading the polls with Robredo remaining at a distant second.

There were discussions among political observers on the reliability of Google Trends in capturing voter sentiments, with some noting how it has matched up with the results of elections in numerous countries, including the Philippines in the 2016 polls.

“Ang pinakapinapakita lang ng Google Trends yung mga topics na nagte-trend, maraming nagse-search sa topic na yun. Di mo makikita doon ang voter preference. Makikita mo lang anong binabasa nila, anong hinahanap nila,” Tabunda said.

The talks also coincided with debates among analysts and statisticians online over the accuracy of data from traditional pollsters such as Pulse Asia.

Early this week, statistician Romulo Virola noted in a viral Facebook post that there were not enough respondents sampled for the 18 to 41 age groups, those who have not reached college age, and those who belong to ABC socioeconomic classes.

Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes acknowledged Virola’s assessment, but he clarified that the socio-economic classification that the pollster uses is different from the one Virola referenced.

He also disagreed with Virola’s assertion that Robredo might have turned out to be more popular than Marcos Jr. if the youth voters were more accurately represented in their survey, noting the dictator’s son enjoys bigger popularity among younger voters.

Tabunda maintained that Pulse Asia’s surveys are scientific and accurate in capturing the sentiments of voters.

“Even if there are a lot of controversies, about the methodologies, we are just sticking to our scientific methods of collecting data to ensure that we are getting accurate reliable results,” Tabunda said.

(MM)

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