French polling watchdog intervenes after Russian report that Fillon’s now ahead in polls
French polling watchdog issues warning after Russian news report claims Fillon regains lead. He's 3rd https://t.co/d4TLEo9qRk
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) April 3, 2017
Fillon moves sharply in the betting to 19% at Macron’s expense
All the movememt in the French betting in the past 24 hours has been to the Republicn candidate, Francois Fillon, following a Russian news report quoting a Russian “poll” that he’s now in the lead. This is the Telegraph report
“..In a statement released on Sunday, the watchdog said the survey could not be described as representative of public opinion and that Sputnik had improperly described it as a “poll” because it did not fulfill the legal definition of the term under French law.
“It is imperative that publication of this type of survey be treated with caution so that public opinion is aware of its non-representative nature,” the commission’s statement said.
Sputnik published a similar online survey by the same firm in mid-February, also showing Mr Fillon in the lead while opinion polls were placing him third.”
There’s a lot of nervousness in Paris about the Russian involvement in the election and it appears that the Putin gang don’t want Mr. Macron.
My guess is that we’ll see a lot more of this in the next three weeks.
French law has very strict controls over political polling including what and what cannot be descirbed as a poll.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that there will be an attempt to influence the betting markets as well.