A graphic mistakenly attributing 36% of voting intentions in favor of presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was broadcast on Saturday, 11th March, by LCI, a French news channel. LCI are now apologizing for this unfortunate mistake. Internet users who shared the poll questioned the credibility of the poll’s figures which, when added together, gave a total of 107%.
(Translation of tweet above: ‘A magnificent poll where when one adds up all voting intention figures one reaches…107%. Continue to take us for idiots!’)
Some users viewed the poll as an intended media manipulation to favour the candidate.
Contacted by CrossCheck, LCI stressed that “there was no intended manipulation” nor “subliminal message” in favor of the former Minister of Economy.
The poll image was shared hundreds of times on Twitter and Facebook. The BVA Institute, from whom the poll originated, later tweeted replies denying the figures (example below).
(Translation of tweet above: ‘Hello! This erroneous poll was not conducted by BVA, our poll dating from 11.03 shows Macron with 26% of intended votes and not 36%’)
The poll conducted by BVA for regional press gave voting intentions of 26% for Emmanuel Macron, tied with Marine Le Pen, while taking into account a possible margin of error. This poll was shown during LCI’s early morning bulletin at 07:00 local time on March 11, but with the graphic wrongly displaying 36% intended votes for Emmanuel Macron instead of the correct 26%. The error was corrected a few moments later and the numbers were correct in LCI’s later bulletins.
