By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would win next weekend’s presidential election on the first ballot, countering expectations of a second round where opposition parties are expecting to field a joint candidate against the President, a study has revealed.

The study conducted by academic researchers of a private university, Covenant University, revealed that Jonathan is the preferred presidential candidate among 52 per cent of Nigerian voters. The report also revealed that a record number of Nigerians would be voting in the elections commencing tomorrow.

In an irony, the high rating of the President may not transmit to the positive advantage of PDP candidates in the National Assembly elections holding tomorrow. While the President is expected to sweep the polls in the South-West, underlining political forces in the region would also ensure that the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, would do very well in many of the states in the South-West.

The study also showed that an estimated 90 per cent of Nigerians are determined to vote and make their votes count in the general elections.

The study carried out by the Covenant Opinion Unit and fully funded by the university showed Jonathan leading by a majority in the South-East, South-South and South-West zones with 75.1 per cent 83.7 per cent and 50.8 per cent respectively. In a shocker, the study also showed that Jonathan leads the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the North-West by 47.4 per cent to 38.3 per cent.

The study coordinated by Prof. Idowu Shobowale, head of the Covenant University Opinion Unit, also showed that Nigerians may not vote blindly in the series of elections commencing tomorrow. The outcome of the vote could see Jonathan of the PDP winning in the South-West while the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, winning in local elections in Lagos.

“It is significant to note, if the politicians would let the electorate be, that the people are now beginning to be motivated to vote for concrete issues that ought to matter to them,” the study disclosed.

Seun:

Nigerian's Choice For Presidency, 2010 By Covenant University Opinion Poll Unit (CUOPU)

abes:


Nigerians' Choice for Presidency, 2011

Covenant University Opinion Poll Unit (CUOPU) is a branch of Covenant University Centre for Research and Development (CUCERD) with a sole responsibility of carrying out both physical and electronic unbiased research opinion survey of Nigerians (at States and National levels) on issues of National and International interests. The unit headed by a Professor of Communication consists of researchers from various relevant disciplines of the University like: Demography, Political Science, Sociology, System and Information Science, Computer and Information Science, Mass Communication, Mechanical Engineering and Physics. The constitution of the team ensures efficient data gathering and processing towards a credible and fair 2011 election in Nigeria. The unit carried out the first physical opinion poll survey on the preference of Nigerians for the post of presidency in the forth coming general election in October 2010. The results were published in a number of Nigerian journals.

Here we publish the electronic opinion poll result (data and chart) of December 2010 - January 2011 just before the primaries. There will be, subsequently, a monthly survey till election. This opinion poll survey done in all the 36 states of Nigeria and Federal capital Territory (FCT) Abuja is fully sponsored by Covenant University as a worthy contribution towards free and credible election in Nigeria. Detailed data and information of the survey are kept in our archive.

It is our believe that this exercise done without any bias under an ecclesiastical sense of duty and honesty shall be a reliable indicator of the choice of Nigerians for the Presidency and Governorship positions in the forth coming election.

We seize this opportunity to appreciate all the media houses joining us and other just and fair minded Nigerians in the free publication of this findings.

The interpretation of the result is left for the readers.

Director,

Covenant University, Centre for Research and Development.

(CUCERD)



This poll was done in Janauary before the primaries. Do you know how many people now have their eyes opened since then? infact, then I was still blindly following GEJ.

My dear, things have changed

muami:

If you did not read selectively, you would realise that the January poll was the first one and subsequently, they have been updating it monthly based on further polls. And if you look at your calendar you would see that March juts ended so obviously, this result is current up to march