Ahead of the 2023 general election, a new survey conducted in 12 states across the federation has revealed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, leads in the north-west and north-east with 59.8% and 50.3%, respectively.
The survey, conducted by Nextier, revealed that the southwest has been designated as a battleground for major presidential candidates from the major parties running in the 2023 elections.
According to the poll, Atiku was the preferred candidate in the northwest and northeast, followed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) flagbearer Bola Tinubu, who received 25.4% and 27.2% in both areas, respectively.
According to the Nextier survey, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, led in the north-central with 59.8%, the south-south with 67.3%, and the southeast with 94%.
The policy organization, on the other hand, identified southwest as the most competitive region, with Tinubu leading with 37.4% and Obi trailing with 24%.
According to reports, approximately 19.8% of surveyed voters in the southwest are still undecided about their preferred presidential candidate.
WITHIN NIGERIA has learned that Nextier stated that the independent survey was conducted among registered voters in rural communities across the federation’s 12 states, with a focus on PDP and APC-controlled states in each geopolitical region.
The study defined rural communities as local government areas with no tertiary educational institutions.
The survey team conducted face-to-face polls of registered voters in two states in each of the country’s six geopolitical zones.
According to Nextier, a sample size of 2,000 respondents was used in the survey in Nasarawa (APC), Benue (PDP), Gombe (APC), Bauchi (PDP), Kebbi (APC), Sokoto (PDP), Cross River (APC), Edo (PDP), Imo (APC), Abia (PDP), Ogun (APC), and Oyo (APC) (PDP).
The organization also disclosed that the survey excluded the home states of the major parties’ leading presidential and vice-presidential candidates and that all survey respondents were registered to vote in the 2023 elections.