Ahead of the 2023 general election, a new survey conducted in 12 states across the federation has revealed that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar is leading in the north-west and north-east with 59.8% and 50.3% respectively.
A survey conducted by a policy organisation identified as Nextier revealed that the southwest has been marked as a battleground for major presidential candidates from the main party contending at the 2023 polls.
According to the survey, Atiku was the prefered candidate in the northwest and northeast, followed by the flagbearer of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, who scored 25.4% and 27.2% respectively in both areas.
The Nextier survey, sighted by Punch also revealed that the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi led in the north-central with 59.8 %, the south-south with 67.3 % and in the southeast with 94%.
The policy organisation, however, marked southwest the most contended region where Tinubu was leading with 37.4 % and Obi in the second position with 24%.
The southwest was reported to have about 19.8 % of surveyed voters still undecided about their preferred presidential candidate.
According to Nextier, the independent survey was carried out among registered voters in rural communities across 12 states of the federation with a focus on PDP and APC-controlled states in each geopolitical region.
Rural communities were characterised in the study as local government areas with no tertiary educational institutions.
The survey team conducted a face-to-face poll of registered voters polls in two states in each of the six geopolitical zones in the country.
The survey results were released over the weekend, 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 (PDP).
The organisation also revealed that the survey excluded the home states of the leading presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the major parties, adding that all survey respondents were registered to vote in the 2023 elections.
