It subsequently emerged that Fine Gael engaged in a similar practice in earlier general election campaigns with party canvassers using business cards for a non-existent company in an effort to ascertain the political allegiance of voters. The first hint about the scale of the fraudulent polling emerged with the disclosure that Sinn Féin encouraged party activists in the 2016 general election to tell people that they worked for a fake polling company called Irish Market Research Agency and the party even produced fake IMRA identity badges to enable them to pull off the deception. The systematic programme of deception was an exercise in deceit as well as an intrusion into peoples’ privacy.
Our major political parties have brought the democratic process into disrepute by using members and other personnel to pose as legitimate pollsters in an effort to find out the political opinions of voters.
