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…70% residents endorse gov to clinch 2nd term
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The coast seems to be clear for the incumbent governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodinma, following the scientific opinion poll conducted by a pro-democracy Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Justice and Democracy for Development (JD4D) that favoured him to retain his position after the November 11 governorship election.
The CSO, in a report of the poll released on Friday, noted that random sampling and in-depth interviews conducted across the 27 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state showed that Gov Uzodinma led his two closest rivals.
Result of the sampling showed that the governor, who is running for second term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is the preferred choice of 70 per cent of the respondents.
“The APC is trailed by Labour Party (LP) with 18 per cent chances while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came third with 13 per cent,” the report stated partly.
“Three percent of the respondents said they were yet to decide on their choice. Two percent said they will not vote while one 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, six LGAs in favour of LP while four LGAs favour PDP.”
Aside 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 LP (24 per cent), followed by PDP at 12 percent”.
“In 17 out of the 27 LGAs majority of respondents believed APC will win the election while in seven and three local governments majority of respondents believed LP and PDP will win, respectively,” the report stated.
The report further indicated that political parties participating 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 per cent), sending a message on social media asking to support a candidate (47 per cent), and door to door visit (41 per cent). 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 per cent), joined a party (56 per cent) and participated in a rally (47 per cent). APC (26 per cent) followed bY LP (20 per cent) are observed to be the major parties enjoying more encouragement of family and friends to support their candidate or party.”
On the general election atmosphere and preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), report of the survey showed that residents are confident of the preparation of the electoral body.
“Overall, 50 per cent believed that INEC is prepared for the forthcoming elections. While 28 per cent believed that INEC is very prepared, 22 per cent believed they are somewhat prepared.”
