Liberal Party presidential candidate Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III regained the lead over his closest rival, the Nacionalista Party’s Manuel Villar, in the latest survey of polling firm Pulse Asia, the results of which were released Friday.
The independent survey results showed 36 percent of the 1,800 adult respondents choosing Aquino over Villar’s 29 percent.
Pulse Asia said Aquino’s voter support remained virtually unchanged from that shown in a January survey but the preference for Villar dropped by six percentage points.
Only one other candidate, former president Joseph Estrada, got a double-digit preference rating – 18 percent – a six percentage-point increase from January.
The other presidential candidates registered voter preferences of seven percent (administration bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr.) or less, while six percent of respondents said they had yet to decide who to vote for if the elections were held at the time of the survey.
The face-to-face poll was conducted from February 21 to 25 had a +/- 2% error margin at the 95% confidence level.
In the vice presidential race, Aquino’s running mate, Senator Manuel Roxas II, maintained what Pulse Asia called a “sizeable lead” over other candidates, with 43 percent. His closes contender, the NP’s Senator Loren Legarda was a distant second with 27 percent, followed by Estrada’s running mate, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, with 15 percent.
All other vice presidential bets rated four percent or less, with seven percent of the respondents with no preference.
The survey showed Aquino enjoying a significant lead in the National Capital Region and among the ABC classes, but shared top spot with Villar in the rest of Luzon and in the Visayas, and among the E class.
In Mindanao, almost as many chose Estrada as Aquino.
In the vice presidential race, Roxas led across most areas and socioeconomic classes except in Luzon and class E, where he was statistically tied with Legarda.
mindoropost.com 