Ahead of the January 2011 presidential primary of Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan trails his opponent, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in the party’s opinion poll.
According to the poll, on the website of the party (www.peoplesdemocraticparty.net), while the President has so far scored 806 of the 1,706 votes so far, representing 47.2 per cent, Abubakar has 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 last voting was done Tuesday morning.
PANA could not confirm what criteria were used for the ‘Presidential Primary Opinion Poll’, which started on 18 Nov.
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.
Political analysts said the contest is the most acrimonious party primary in Nigeria’s history, blaming in on the PDP’s ‘zoning’ policy, under which key posts are rotated between the North and the South.
Most Northerners believe it is their turn to occupy the presidency, after two, four-year terms by President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Southerner.
They are therefore opposed to President Jonathan, a Southerner who assumed office in May following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua (a Northerner) three years into his presidency, becoming President in 2011.