TEHRAN The 8th Iranian presidential election is due to be held on Friday. As far as Iranian elections are concerned, all seven elections for the president and six for the Majlis were held on time and on the basis of the Constitution.

As a whole, the process of the presidential election campaign was satisfactory, except in a few instances where radical elements tried to create disturbances.

During the pre-election period, opinion polls play a significant role in almost all democratic countries. Political pundits rightly believe that opinion polls help the voters to determine whom they should cast their votes for.

But unfortunately in our country some state-run organizations that should be neutral in their performance are playing a biased role in this regard. For instance, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) since Tuesday has reported the results of a number of opinion polls which were mainly conducted by the 2nd Khordad Front. This is neither fair journalism nor healthy dissemination of information, particularly for a state-run organization.

We have three centers where opinion polls are conducted during every election campaign. These centers are the President's Office, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Ministry of Information.

Informed sources know these centers conducted opinion polls for the June 8 elections, but they did not announce the results.

What is the reason? One source said that there could be a possibility that the "results do not reflect public opinion." He did not go into any details.

IRNA mostly reported the results of opinion polls conducted by institutions which belong to the 2nd Khordad Front and not those conducted by neutral bodies.

For example, Hezb-e Sa'adat Islam, Islamic Iran Participation Party (IIPP) Election Headquarters in Mashhad, Jihad University's Deputy Culture Affairs Center, Tavakoli headquarters, Public Relations of Jihad University, the Headquarters for the 8th Presidential Election in Sistan- Baluchestan, the Students Committee of the 2nd Khordad in Qom and the Islamic Association of Teachers and Students of the University of Sistan-Baluchestan have conducted opinion polls, according to IRNA.

One can easily understand the biased attitude of the pro-Khatami 2nd Khordad Front, but in the case of IRNA, it is surprising. Its reputation as an authentic source of information has been sullied.