Despite the confirmation, last week, that President Goodluck Jonathan would seek the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to contest next year’s presidential election, a lot of uncertainty still appears to be hanging over the direction the delegates would go, come next month’s primaries

A survey conducted in the first week of this month for International Institute for Political Research, a United Kingdom-based policy development centre, indicates that the race for the ticket of the presidential candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a three-way contest between the president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar and the former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

The report released in Abuja at the weekend by Mr Nuhu Shua’ibu, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute, says a large percentage of the delegates to the party’s convention had not made up their minds by early September, when the survey was conducted.

Shua’ibu told Daily Sun: “With about 40% of the surveyed population reporting undecided, the race for the ticket remains very much open and can, in fact swing in favor of any of the aforementioned candidates”.
According to the survey’s findings, at least, one out of every four delegates has indicated a preference for Jonathan, Babangida or Atiku, while about two out of each five delegates said they remained undecided.

It said that 57% of those who withheld support for President Jonathan hinged their position on the fact that they had mixed feelings about his determination to run in the race despite the decision of the PDP to retain its policy on power rotation. But then, this was before it became clear last Wednesday that Jonathan was indeed in the race.
As part of its preparation for monitoring the general elections coming up in January 2011 in Nigeria, the International Institute for Political Research, which is a non-partisan organization, said it already has a number of programme officers in the country .


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/sept/13/national-13-09-2010-001.htm