A scientific opinion poll conducted by a pro-democracy civil society group, Justice and Democracy for Development (JD4D), has tipped Governor Hope Uzodimma to emerge victorious in the governorship election in Imo State billed for November 11.
In a report released on Friday, JD4D said random sampling and in-depth interviews conducted across the 27 local government areas of the state placed Governor Uzodimma ahead of his two closest rivals in the forthcoming poll.
The sampling, according to the pollster, indicated that Uzodimma who is seeking reelection for a second term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is the preferred choice of 70 percent of the respondents.
The report of the poll noted: “The APC is trailed by the Labour Party (LP) with 18 percent chances while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came third with 13 percent,” the report stated in part.
“Three percent of the respondents said they were yet to decide on their choice. Two percent said they will not vote while 1 percent of the respondents declined to disclose their choice.
“Chances of the APC are mainly spread among middle-aged and elderly persons across sexes with respondents mostly in urban areas choosing the party over the two closest rivals. Out of the 27 LGAs opinions are higher for APC in 17 LGAs, 6 LGAs in favour of Labour Party while 4 LGAs favour PDP.”
Apart from polling higher among eligible voters, the result showed that “majority of respondents (at 70 percent) believes that APC is likely to win the election ahead of Labour Party (24 percent), followed by PDP at 12 percent.
“In 17 out of the 27 LGs majority of respondents believed APC will win the election while in 7 and 3 local governments majority of respondents believed Labour and PDP will win, respectively.”
The report further noted that political parties taking part in the election are working hard to outdo each other in canvassing support especially to sway the undecided voters.
“Political parties have contacted people in different ways to get their support. Some of the ways are giving food and drinks for attending a rally (51%), sending a message on social media asking to support a candidate (47%), and door to door visit (41%). Across different ways, APC is observed to be more involved using these strategies to contact people than other parties or candidates.
“For respondents that had engaged in activities to support gubernatorial candidates of their choice, the following activities are the foremost activities engaged in: Encouraged family and friends to support a candidate or party (74%), joined a party (56%) and participated in a rally (47%). APC (26%) followed BY LP (20%) are observed to be the major parties enjoying more encouragement of family and friends to support their candidate or party,” it added.
On the general atmosphere and preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the governorship poll, the report of the survey said residents are confident of the preparation of the electoral body.
It tasked INEC to ensure the conduct of free and fair election that would reflect the wish of the people.
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