Gallup Korea and 33 other domestic opinion-polling companies have decided to transition from using the Automated Response Service(ARS) to human interactions for political and election surveys.

The Korea Research Association(KORA) announced the decision in a press release on Sunday in light of the group’s opinion that ARS is not a valid scientific research method.

The National Election Survey Deliberation Commission also said that when using virtual mobile numbers to conduct the surveys, the response rate must exceed at least ten percent in order to be valid and seven percent when using the random digit dialing method.

The latest changes apply to the approval rating of the president, approval ratings of the ruling and opposition parties and public opinion polls related to the general elections published by the 34 KORA member research companies.

This marks the first time that the group has established and declared its own standards for telephone polls for political surveys.