Survey shows easy sailing for PML-N in NA-120 by-polls

ISLAMABAD: As the election fever escalates in NA-120, at least 69 percent people in the constituency favour the PML-N candidate against 23 percent voting for the PTI’s Yasmeen Rashid, says a recent pre-poll survey conducted by Pulse Consultant.

The PML-N as a party is almost three times more popular than the PTI as the survey results show that the PML-N gets the confidence of 62 percent voters while the PTI is liked by 23 percent voters of NA-120.

The pre-poll survey conducted by Pulse Consultant in NA-120 with a representative sample of 1,520 voters, selected from 152 locations from all 19 union councils of NA-120, indicates easy sailing for the ruling PML-N in the upcoming by-election. The seat vacated by the disqualification of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif may be filled by his wife Kulsoom Nawaz in 17th September polls.

The respondents exhibited an overall 62 percent satisfaction with the performance of the federal government while 70 percent stated their satisfaction with the provincial government in Punjab. Twenty percent respondents who intent to vote for the PTI appraise the federal government’s performance as satisfactory while the numbers increase to 32 percent for Punjab government.

The difference increases as the female respondents anticipated the final winner with 72 percent projecting Kulsoom Nawaz compared to only 18 percent favouring Yasmeen Rashid. The corruption allegations levelled against former prime minister and MNA from the constituency Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif are considered ill-founded by 55 percent of the respondents with 60 percent women considering Nawaz Sharif as innocent in the case. Similarly, 59 percent of the respondents considered his disqualification unjust.

Imran Khan’s possible disqualification is considered far from reality by majority of the respondents (55 percent) especially males (61 percent). Interestingly, females have a divided opinion (51 percent support disqualification while 49 percent oppose the idea).

Those surveyed stated a high percentage of voting in the upcoming by-poll. Ninety-four percent of the respondents stated their willingness to cast votes in the upcoming election. In the 2013 general elections, the PML-N secured 61 percent of the votes followed by PTI’s 35 percent. Comparatively, even after former prime minister’s disqualification by the Supreme Court, the PML-N still maintains its popularity among the voters.

The PML-N and PTI enjoy considerably loyal vote bank with 80 percent and 88 percent of the respondents expressing their intentions of a voting the same party as they did in 2013. The PML-N is apparently a more preferred option among women (67 percent) than men (57 percent) compared to PTI (19 and 27 percent), respectively. However, the PTI’s vote bank seems stronger in PP-140 than PP-139 which constitute NA-120 constituency with 28 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

Geo is the most popular television channel watched by the voters of NA-120 with 64 percent preferring it. Fifty-five percent people say that they prefer watching Geo for election results. Hamid Mir is the favourite anchor of voters of NA-120.