An opinion poll conducted by the Center for Electoral Participation in Nigeria (CEP) has predicted that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, will win the September 21 Edo governorship election.

The poll showed that the PDP candidate has a 1.9 lead over his All Progressives Congress (APC) challenger Monday Okpebholo.

The centre in the report released by CEP Team Lead Dr. Kingsley Osunbo said the PDP candidate is in the lead at 5.2 points followed by APC’s Monday Okpehbolo at 3.3 and Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata at 1.5 point, “based on voter connection with manifesto, campaign penetration, candidate’s carriage and party affiliations.”

The report which was released to the media on Tuesday “after a two weeks survey of voter enthusiasm across the 18 Local Government Areas of Edo State,” according to Osunbo, evaluated the general perception of registered voters on candidates of political parties in the coming election.

According to him, the survey focused on voter enthusiasm in the September 21 poll as well as interest, support for and connection with the manifestoes of candidates of respective political parties in the election.

He explained that the report indicated that respondents were conversant with three political parties; the PDP, the APC and the LP “with the PDP and its candidate having higher public awareness level and followership across the 18 Local Government Areas.”

The pollsters said most respondents irrespective of party affiliation voted for the PDP candidate as the “most campaigning candidate; most issue-based campaigning candidate; most people-connected candidate; the candidate with a most people-based manifesto and the candidate with strongest party strength” in the election.

The CEP report claimed that there was a sharp rise in voter interest and support for the PDP candidate in the last week of heated political events in the state “including the affirmation of Dr. Ighodalo as PDP candidate by the court.”

Further analysis of the survey showed that most of the non-partisan respondents had connected with Ighodalo after the affirmation of his candidacy by the court.

The CEP Team Lead said the survey was carried out in strict adherence to international best practices of objectivity, confidentiality and spread. (New Telegraph)