Photo: President Goodluck Jonathan

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja


An opinion poll that was conducted by a group, Youth Ballot Evolution, YBE, ‎ has handed President Goodluck Jonathan a 51 percent victory over the candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) who got 49 per cent of the total number of votes cast.

YBE, the organiser of the poll, said it carried out an  offline poll ‎which it said had an impressive turnout with a total of 6,115,213 votes cast in a 27-hour period and a total of 5,863,094 valid votes.

Whereas President Jonathan of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, got a total of 2,990,178 votes, General Buhari got 2,872,197.

A statement by the group said the poll took place from 9am on Saturday January 24 to noon on Sunday January 25  2015.

YBE, which is a platform of youths with over 8.7 million registered members across the country, said it decided to conduct the opinion poll "following a clamour‎ by the youths on the need to conduct an offline poll ahead of the presidential election.

‎"Recent polls in Nigeria have mostly been conducted online.

"While this is a valid means of conducting a poll, it does not give everybody an opportunity to participate as a lot of Nigerians do not have steady internet access.

"The Youth Ballot Evolution, which has more than 70% of its members as offline members, realised that a truly valid public opinion poll could only be conducted using an offline medium.

"This led to the YBE Presidential Opinion Poll which was conducted by allowing interested voters to choose between the APC Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and the PDP Presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, by calling a toll-free number.”


Source: ThisDay