The Battle Ground For 2015 Presidential Election

Ahead of the presidential election, PDP and APC are plotting strategies focused on gaining advantage in states and geopolitical zones with high voting strength.

It was gathered that PDP strategists are banking on support from the South-south and South-east, while APC is counting on the North-west and North-east, with both parties readying to slug it out in the North-central and South-west, which are seen as battleground zones.

A senior presidency official said, “The general permutation for the 2015 presidential election is based on the support of the South-south states, irrespective of the fact that Edo State and Rivers State are technically in the hands of the opposition APC.” 

PDP estimates to get at least 70 per cent of South-east votes. It hopes to get even more in the South-south, Jonathan’s native zone. But whatever PDP may lose in the South-south and South-east, it hopes to cover in the North-central, whose states are governed by PDP, except Nasarawa State, the source said.

“The low population strength in the two geopolitical zones of South-east and South-south is reinforced with the voting strength in the North-central.” The source explained that Jonathan would get more than 25 per cent of the votes in the North-east and North-west states. He said PDP strategists believed the party would get between 40 and 50 per cent of the votes in the South-west, which they recognised as the stronghold of the opposition.
The South-west has the second highest voter population after North-west.

An APC chieftain, who is among the main strategists of the party, said that whatever votes PDP could garner would be countered in the states of Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna and Katsina, which he described as the stronghold of the opposition.