It’s already February and the national election (May 10, 2010)in the Philippines is looming in the horizon. The battle between the election candidates is growing red hot. And part of the heat wave comes from the surveys made by firms capable of gauging the “mood” the Filipino society. Here in the Philippines there are two firms that have quite a reputation with regards to making election surveys. These were the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia . But the question is: Can we really trust their surveys? Based on my personal knowledge in statistics, surveys, if done properly, can be a powerful tool in predicting the overall “mood” of the society. How was that possible? We’ll, surveys take a small part or sample of the entire population, examine its properties using statistical techniques and assumes that it represents the entire population.