Shekarau leads in fresh opinion poll

By Festus Owete

April 1, 2011 02:49AM
Print print Email email Share Share


A poll conducted by Pollstar, an Abuja-based opinion poll and survey agency, has rated the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, Ibrahim Shekarau as the likely winner of the April 9 presidential poll.

Mr Shekarau, in the weekly poll, scored 21 percent of the 70 million votes to beat his closest rival, President Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party who scored 20 per cent.

The Congress of Progressive Change candidate, Muhammadu Buhari scored 18 per cent; Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, 17 percent; and Dele Momodu of National Conscience Party, 5.5 percent.

The executive director of Pollstar, Obi Benedict Ekene, at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, said Mr Jonathan was leading in the poll as at last week but was overtaken by Mr Shekarau, whom he said got the nod of the respondents who subscribed to the bulk SMS generated poll rating.

Mr Obi explained that the agency "relied on SMS generated among MTN, GLO, AIRTEL and ETISALAT subscribers through procurement of a united short code whereby the respondents send in the name of their respective candidates for either the president or governorship elections to 32142." "Both Shekarau and Jonathan enjoy widespread support across the different geo-political zones, while Buhari and Ribadu's main support was in the northwest and southwest zones, respectively. The opinion poll is very comprehensive, objective, and factual," he said.

Weekly polls

Mr Ekene stated that given the dynamics of voters' behaviour, Pollstar will continue to release results on weekly basis till the end of the election.

Apart from carrying out survey on other topical issues in the country, the executive director, said that the agency successfully conducted opinion polls in Anambra State in February 2010 as well as in Delta and Ekiti States when rerun elections were held in the states.

He also said that the results of the governorship opinion polls, showed that some serving governors are trailing behind their challengers

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Politics/5686757-146/story.csp


LMFAO!@bolded!!!

April fool