Tuesday, February 1st, 2022

Daily Courier – A majority of voters in Ekiti expect the June gubernatorial race to be between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), but they don’t like the idea of imposition of candidates which characterized the primary elections of both parties.

A new statewide face-to-face survey by Gates Polls finds that 69% of Likely Ekiti voters expect the forthcoming gubernatorial race to be between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Only 19% think an outside candidate or party can pull a surprise, while 11% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here:

Ekiti Gubernatorial Primary: Survey question wording

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From the results of 1000 randomly polled eligible voters in Ekiti state, across all the sixteen LGA in Ekiti state and interviewed face-to-face: (71%) of Ekiti eligible voters held the view that the APC primary was poorly conducted. 59 percent of female are dissatisfied compared to 41 percent male while about 8 percent of polled eligible voters are undecided.

When the same question was asked about the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), (64%) of Ekiti eligible voters believe the PDP primary was poorly conducted. 61 percent of female are dissatisfied compared to 39 percent male while about only 2 percent of polled eligible voters are undecided.

Meanwhile, 69 percent of polled eligible voters are sure of voting for either a candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the at the June gubernatorial election despite the flawed primary elections. In response to the question: “Do you expect to vote for either APC or PDP candidate during the June gubernatorial election?” (37%) is sure to vote for PDP candidate, Male and Female accounting for 44 and 56 percent respectively. (32%) is sure to vote for APC candidate, Male and Female accounting for 58 and 42 percent respectively. Those who are sure of voting a candidate of another party are (19%), predominantly male 71 percent. While those who are not sure simply don’t want to divulge their candidate (11%), (66%) being female.

The poll further revealed (59%) of voters think the likely winner will not serve Ekiti people due to the entrenched external forces who may hijack the government. 71 percent of female have this reservation.

Also, the poll also showed that while 91 percent of respondents claimed to have permanent voters card, 58 percent were certain they would vote during the June gubernatorial election in Ekiti state.

On the issue of gender, a significant proportion (69 percent) of respondents think it is a smart move to have a female running mate while 78 percent believe that the deputy governorship candidate of the two leading parties should emerge from Ekiti south senatorial district for equity.

In addition, the poll revealed that (49%) of respondents think it is a bad idea to take the crisis ridden primary before the courts while (42%) agree that it is a good idea.

In conclusion, majority of voters in Ekiti expect the June gubernatorial race to be between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), but they don’t like the idea of imposition of candidates which characterized the primary elections of both parties. The significantly proportional margin only goes to show that the forthcoming Governorship election will be a two horse race between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The survey of 1,000 Ekiti Likely Voters was conducted on January 28-31, 2022 by Gates Polls Limited. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Gates Polls Limited is conducted by Gates Polls Academy. See methodology.

Conclusion
Data Availability
The data used to support the findings of this study are the copyright of Gates Polls.

Ethical Approval
Participation was voluntary and confidential. Also, the survey conforms with the highest polling standard anywhere in the world.

Conflicts of Interest
Gates Polls Limited declares that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this survey.

Acknowledgments
This survey is part of Gates Polls Limited periodic surveys. No grant is provided from any institution for this publication. Finally, I would like to offer heartfelt gratitude to all the research and editorial team at Gates Polls Limited for your professional inputs.

Copyright
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