Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to have removed from its official website the opinion polls on which of its two candidates is favoured to win the party’s presidential primary 13 Jan. 2011.
When PANA visited the website (www.peoplesdemocraticparty.com) Wednesday, the poll was no longer on the page.
No reason was given for the removal, but a PDP source told PANA it could be because the local media have focused on the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan was trailing his opponent, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in the opinion poll.
As at Tuesday morning, the President had scored 806 of the 1,706 votes, representing 47.2 per cent, while Abubakar had won 828 votes, representing 48.5 per cent.
Some 54 voters, representing 3.2 per cent, picked none of the two candidates, while 10 (0.6 per cent) were undecided.
The two-horse race between President Jonathan and Abubakar is being keenly contested, with both sides spending huge funds on newspaper advertisements to expose the other’s weaknesses.
Nigeria will hold general elections in April 2011.