With less than two weeks before the automated elections, Malacañang appealed on Monday to the electorate, especially the undecided ones, to vote based on their conscience and not be swayed by results of surveys.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar warned that electing new leaders based on their performance in opinion polls would be a “wasted vote.”

“The election is fast approaching and we expect our people to be intelligent and discerning in choosing our new national and local leaders,” Olivar said in a news conference.

“It is up to us that surveys don’t rule our lives, show that we will not allow surveys to make the decision for us,” he added in his appeal to the undecided voters.

While it understands the anxiety of presidential candidate Richard Gordon about the inaccurate pre-election surveys, Olivar said the Palace does not support the senator's move to ban such surveys because they continue to respect freedom of expression.

“However we are one with the Senator in his appeal to voters not to surrender to survey results their right and obligation to think for oneself and follow our own conscience,” he said.

“Wasted vote is not the vote given to losing candidate. Wasted vote is the vote based on the results of a survey of people we don’t even know,” he said. (Genalyn Kabiling)