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Poll shows Bobi’s popularity rising as Museveni’s declines

Monday May 06 2019
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Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine addresses a gathering at Arua Hill Primary School grounds in northern Uganda on March 24, 2019 during the thanksgiving ceremony of Arua Municipality MP Kassiano Wadri. PHOTO | DAILY MONITOR

By NATION AFRICA

If Ugandans had gone to the polls last month, President Yoweri Museveni would score 32 per cent of the votes, which is way below the 50 per cent plus one vote that a presidential candidate requires to win an election outright, an opinion poll by Research World International shows.

UNDECIDED

The poll results have a +/-5 margin of error, but even if this were to entirely play in President Museveni’s favour, he would still end up with 37 per cent and remain way below the threshold.

This is Mr Museveni’s lowest ever rating in an opinion poll during his tenure as president.

The opinion poll results further show that newcomer Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, would edge out Opposition doyen Kizza Besigye, although both would come in behind President Museveni. Mr Kyagulanyi, the Kyadondo East MP, would poll 22 per cent of the votes while four-time presidential candidate Dr Besigye would harvest 13 per cent.

The poll results also show that 20 per cent of the eligible voters are still undecided, a chunk big enough to thrust Mr Museveni over the finish line if he sways all of them to his side, or claw him out of the seat of power if they vote against him.

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Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, Democratic Party president Norbert Mao, UPC president Jimmy Akena and Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, a former president of FDC and now coordinator of the newly founded Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) party, would each get two per cent of the votes, the poll results show.

Neither Ms Kadaga, nor Mr Akena and Gen Muntu, who both lead national political parties, have declared interest to run in the country’s presidential election in 2021.

The same poll indicates that former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi and Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba would score one per cent apiece, while First Lady Janet Museveni would poll 0.2 per cent and Jeema president Asuman Basalirwa would come in at 0.10 per cent.

URBAN AREAS

However, none of three has declared interest to vie for the presidency.

These responses were generated using the following question: “If the presidential election were to be held tomorrow, who would you vote for?”

The question was put to all 2,042 respondents across the country who participated in the survey, Research World International says.

The results of the opinion poll were made available to Sunday Monitor by RWI, which says it will officially release them tomorrow

Monitor Publications Ltd did not commission neither finance the poll.

The poll results show that President Museveni would not score over 50 per cent in all the regions, with Western region likely to give him the highest vote tally at 47 per cent while Central would give him the least number of votes at 19 per cent.

Mr Museveni would poll 22 per cent in Kampala, 32 per cent in Eastern, and 39 per cent of the votes in Northern.

The poll further shows that the President would get only 28 per cent of the vote in urban areas and 35 per cent in rural areas.

Support for Mr Museveni across the sexes is evening out, the poll suggests, with 33 per cent of the females interviewed saying they would vote for him, while 32 per cent of the males said they would vote for him.

HEAVIEST DEFEAT

The poll results further show that Mr Kyagulanyi would top both Kampala and Central region, scoring 35 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. Dr Besigye would score 10 per cent in Kampala and 12 per cent in Central region in the same poll.

Dr Besigye took Kampala in the 2016 election, with President Museveni suffering his heaviest defeat in the capital since the 1996 elections.

Dr Besigye polled 66 per cent of the votes while Mr Museveni got 31 per cent of the vote.

Mr Museveni then won in the rest of the regions on his way to securing a 60.6 per cent win while Dr Besigye scored 35.6 per cent, official figures show.

But Dr Besigye rejected the results and still insists that he won the 2016 vote with 52 per cent.

In the new poll, Mr Museveni appears to surrender the initiative in the populous Central region, polling only 19 per cent while Mr Kyagulanyi and Dr Besigye combined would account for 35 per cent.

President Museveni has never lost in the Central region, which according to the survey demographics accounts for 29 per cent of all the voters.

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Mr Kyagulanyi would come in second to President Museveni in Eastern, with 19 per cent compared to Mr Museveni’s 32 per cent, while Dr Besigye would poll 12 per cent in the region.

Mr Kyagulanyi would again come in second to Museveni in Northern with 13 per cent against the President’s 39 per cent. Dr Besigye would poll 11 per cent in the region, while Mr Mao would get eight per cent in Northern, his region of origin.

Western is the only region where Dr Besigye would get more votes than Mr Kyagulanyi, scoring 19 per cent against Mr Kyagulanyi’s 13 per cent. But both would not match President Museveni, who would poll 47 per cent of the votes in the region.

The data on which the poll is based was collected between April 12 and 25.

From Easter Monday, April 21, Mr Kyagulanyi has been the most prominent figure in the news after his concert was blocked and he was put under house arrest. Dr Besigye was active in a number of upcountry areas, where he had a number of radio talk shows blocked.

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