Spanish Electoral Law dictates that, in the five days prior to elections, election polls can no longer be published.

But Spanish newspapers are keen on keeping their readers informed, and have been finding creative ways to circumvent this law. That is, publishing, without really publishing, election polls right up until election day.

Case in point: in 2015 and 2016, readers of Spanish newspaper El Mundo had to learn how to decipher fruit vendor statistics, where the colors of the fruits and vegetables corresponded to the respective political parties.

In 2015 and 2016, readers of Spanish newspaper El Mundo had to learn how to decipher fruit vendor statistics, where the colors of the fruits and vegetables corresponded to the respective political parties.| Elmundo.com

The fruit emojis have been going viral on Twitter for this year, 2019, too.

This year, Eduardo Inda’s newspaper OKdiario got even more creative, publishing barbers’ statistics, again with the colors of the political parties corresponding to the hair style color.

Eduardo Inda’s newspaper OKdiario got even more creative, publishing barbers’ statistics, again with the colors of the political parties corresponding to the hair style color. | okdiario.com

Isn’t the electoral law getting a little old when newspapers are publishing polls anyways? After all, instead of publishing hairstyles, can’t the old law just be amended so we can read the real polls? Reflection days, or días de reflexión, hardly seem to happen in today’s social media age anyways.