POB Brasil, POB-Pesquisas Organizadas do Brasil, identified by the press as "one of the largest opinion and research sites, focusing on several areas, such as political and social", has never carried out any poll that has been certified by the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE), according to a search in the "Consultation of registered searches" section on the Brazilian court's website.
A note at the end of 2021 released by the TSE indicated that from 1 January of this year "all entities or companies that carry out public opinion polls on the intention to vote for possible candidates for the Presidency of the Republic must register in advance with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE)".
To Lusa, the editor of the online portal Pindograma, which registers the Ranking of Research Institutes in Brazil, Daniel Ferreira, is emphatic: "I have never heard of this research company. And I didn't find any mention of it in the Research Registry of the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court for the period 2012-2022".
The company in question did not register or appear on the list of Brazilian electoral polls carried out in the past.
POB Brasil, or POB-Pesquisas Organizadas do Brasil, is also not identified with any of these names on the website of the Federal Revenue of Brazil where the names of companies registered in the country are consulted.
On the POB Brasil website there is no telephone or e-mail contact to contact those responsible.
On the page there is also a mention with a link to training courses offered by the National Archives, a Brazilian government agency, but which is not related to surveys.
"The POBBrasil project has been around for some time and has progressively grown both in its sphere of action and in the team that constitutes it", reads on the website of this alleged Brazilian polling company, created on the 21st of July, the day before having the poll was released.
"We are a Brazilian polling and research site, which has a diverse team in its training. Our purpose is to bring opinion and poll results in various areas, such as political and social. In them we seek to develop specific techniques of the communities studied in Brazil. POB's surveys cover developing and emerging countries", thus identifies the alleged company on its website.
According to the survey in question, carried out with 1,500 voters, by telephone, between the 16th and 21st of July 2022, with a confidence level of 95 percent and a maximum margin of error of 3 percent, the MPLA party would win elections with 62 percent of the vote, ahead of UNITA with 33 percent.
The general elections, the fifth ballot in the country's political history, are scheduled for August 24 and eight political groups, campaigning since July 24, are chasing votes across the country.
More than 14 million voters are registered on the electoral roll, including around 22,000 Angolans residing abroad.
