By Aisha Tamba & Oumie Bojang
The latest survey conducted by the Centre for Policy, Research and Strategic Studies, CepRass, has indicated that NPP’s Adama Barrow is likely to win this weekend’s presidential election.
The opinion poll came as a follow-up to one conducted in August and September 2021 which also showed president likely to win.
The poll stated that the number of undecided voters has dropped to 24 from 40 per cent and 44% indicated they will vote for Barrow followed by 22% for Ousainu Darboe, 6% for Mamma Kandeh, 5% for Halifa Sallah, 3% for Essa Faal and less than 1% for Abdoulie Jammeh.
While both NPP and UDP have made substantial gains on the intention to vote, NPP still currently leads on the intention to vote among decided electorate according to this poll result.
According to the survey, the proportion of respondents is highest in Banjul followed by West Coast Region. It also indicated that President Barrow is likely to outpoll his contenders in all the seven regions of the country, and fare best in URR and CRR.
It stated that the popularity of the UDP as the party likely to win is highest in NBR followed by WCR, LRR, and KMC.
It further revealed that the performance on the likely to win is closer in WCR and NBR, even though NPP has a minor lead over UDP in both regions.
According to the poll, the most important issue the respondents want a new president to address are health by 19%, agriculture 18%, security 15%, education 10%, women’s empowerment 9%, youth employment 8%, public transport 8%, high price of goods 6%, others 5%.
And in conclusion, 80% of the respondents indicated that IEC should enforce the Covid-19 protocols on polling day.
The executive director of CepRass, Lamin Dampha, said the overarching goal of the poll is to provide empirical evidence on the key election issues in The Gambia through regular surveys.
“This second opinion poll was conducted between 9th and 19th November 2021. The goal is to track changes in public perception on electoral issues since the first opinion poll,” he said.
