Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been projected to win Saturday’s presidential election.
This is according to the report of a four weeks’ opinion poll, conducted by a group of data analysts and public relations experts, coordinated by FREDDAN Continental, after making the result of an opinion poll it conducted on the 2023 presidential election public.
The poll, which lasted from January 7 till February 11, pointed to Senator Bola Tinubu, as a potential winner.
Tinubu, according to the poll, rated higher than other candidates from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
The group, in conducting the poll, deployed a group of seasoned data analysts, who utilised online and phone surveys to collect data about voters preferences. The online survey was conducted via a secure web platform that prevented multiple voting while phone survey was conducted by trained staff who are proficient in the three major Nigerian languages – Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa – and could, therefore, engage fully with respondents in their preferred languages.
The FREDDAN Election Net Favourability administered over 370,000 questionnaires over the four weeks’ duration and received a total of 287,033 responses across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
A national summary of the poll showed that the presidential candidate of the APC is favourite to win the 2023 presidential election, having been preferred by 106,764 respondents to the opinion poll, representing 37.2 per-cent of total population of respondents. The regional vot- ing preference survey also showed that the candidate of the APC enjoys majority sup- port in 19 out of 36 states.
The presidential candidate of the LP came second in the poll with 92,127 respondents preferring him over the other candidates. This forms 32.1 percent of the total responses received. The regional voting preference showed that he enjoys ma- jority support in eight out of 36 states of the federation.
The candidate of the PDP, Abubakar, came a surprising third as just 88,109 respondents preferred him, forming 30.7 percent of total respondents. The regional voting pref- erence showed that he enjoys majority support in 10 of the 36 states of the federation.
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) came a distant fourth, polling 693, translating to just 0.23 percent of total respondents.
According to the outcome of the poll, Tinubu of the APC is expected to win majority votes in the North-West, North-Central and South- West regions. The candidate of the PDP is expected to win majority votes in the FCT and the South-South region. Obi of the LP is expected to win majority votes in the South- East region, while the North- East region is expected to be divided between the candidates of the APC and the PDP.
This poll predicts victory for the candidate of the APC, in the February 25 presidential election and the regional voting preference suggests that a clear winner may emerge on the first ballot as against some other predictions that there may be a rerun.
*(Courtesy: Tribune, excluding, headline)
