A nationwide opinion poll conducted in early September has predicted that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi will emerge as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
In a statement issued Thursday and signed by the President & Founder of Anap Foundation, Mr. Atedo Peterside said the polls were conducted in all the six geo-political zones.
Peterside said the opinion polls were commissioned by Anap Foundation and conducted by NOI Polls Limited.
He added that the polls showed a substantially close race between Obi, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It pointed out that September 2022 polls were inconclusive in terms of establishing a clear winner, as the undecided voters are large enough to turn the tables.
It, however, said Anap Foundation has concluded that the trends are clear enough to establish the front runners, saying subsequent polls would concentrate on the four leading candidates only.
The statement reads: “All other contestants polled results that are statistically insignificant. The results showed a significant lead for Mr. Peter Obi with 21% of voters proposing to vote for him if the presidential election were to be conducted today and 13% each proposing to vote for Asiwayu Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar who are both tied in second place. Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso was a distant fourth with 3% of voters proposing to vote for him.
“Mr. Peter Obi’s 8 percentage point lead at this early stage is significant but not sufficient to separate him completely from a leading pack of candidates scoring 21%, 13% and 13% respectively.
“Running significantly behind the leading pack is Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who is the lone outsider i.e. a “dark horse” in the race.”
The polls revealed that undecided voters and those who preferred not to reveal their preferred candidate add up to a whopping 32% and 15% respectively; while the gender split of undecided voters showed that 39% of women are undecided versus 27% of male voters.
It said subsequent polls will focus on the four leading presidential aspirants.