Go is frontrunner in Senate pre-poll survey — Pulse Asia
Go is frontrunner in Senate pre-poll survey — Pulse Asia
Metro Manila, Philippines - Re-electionist Senator Christopher “Bong” Go has displaced frontrunner ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo in the latest pre-election senatorial survey of Pulse Asia released on Thursday, March 13.
The pollster said only 20 percent, or 13 out of 64 candidates, “have a statistical chance of winning” if elections were held in February.
Go topped the survey with 58.1 percent voter preference while Tulfo followed with 56.5 percent.
Former Senate President Vicente Sotto III (49.0%), Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. (46.1%), and Sen. Ronald dela Rosa (44.3%) rounded up the top five preferences.
The survey was conducted on Feb. 20-26, two weeks before the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte based on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody drug war.
READ: Duterte takes responsibility for drug war, braces for long ICC battle
In an interview with NewsWatch Plus, Jean Franco, University of the Philippines department of political science assistant chairperson, said the bloody drug war narrative may be a factor in winning or losing the race: Is it favorable with voters to side with the drug war victims especially those killed at a young age, or would you court more votes to side with the detained former president who said he just did his job for the country?
Two Duterte allies have so far been consistent in the so-called “magic 12” winning circle in the Senate race: Go and Dela Rosa. Franco said it remains to be seen if the Duterte arrest will have an impact on their ranking in the next survey.
Meanwhile, Pulse Asia said the survey results showed only 38% of voters have a “complete senatorial slate,” which means majority of Filipinos have yet to decide on names to fill the 12 Senate seats on the ballot.
“Registered voters are naming a mean of eight and median of nine senatorial candidates they are inclined to elect in May 2025,” the survey said, indicating that the last three to four slots are up for grabs.
On the other hand, the pollster said a big majority, or 83%, of voters indicated a preferred party-list group.
Of the 155 groups in the party-list race, Pulse Asia said only 0.03 percent or five groups have a statistical chance of winning three seats in the House of Representatives. These are ACT-CIS (6.25%), Senior Citizens (5.87%), Tingog (5.01%), Uswag Ilonggo (4.62%), and 4Ps (4.29%).
Seven groups would get two seats if polls were held during the survey period, namely, Duterte Youth (3.48%), Ako Bicol (3.11%), PPP (2.95%), FPJ Panday Bayanihan (2.86%), Kalinga (2.68%), Malasakit@Bayanihan (2.44%), and 1-Rider (2.22%).
The elections will be held on May 12.
