As Italy approaches a general election on 9 and 10 April, the campaign is well under way and opinion polls are published almost daily, with both the right and the left now claiming that it is ahead.

The rules on opinion polls in Italy during elections are clear and are overseen by the antitrust guarantor, responsible for fair play in communications during the election campaign.

The rules are that the results of electoral opinion polls may only be made public if they state who conducted the poll, who ordered the poll, information on the criteria of the questions asked, the method of performing the poll and the type of voters questions, This information should be published on the government web site www.governo.it and also on the web site of the communications authority www.agcom.it