The Maravi Post

MZUZU—An opinion poll, which asked Who will you vote for in 2014? which has been running on The Maravi Post website for the past month has opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) interim president Peter Mutharika as the people’s choice for president, MaraPost has established.

The poll by MaraPost wasn’t only confined to the online publication; readers also accessed the survey on other online newspapers.

According to the information available on the site, voting started on 06-02-2013 at 14:56:23 pm and ended today [Wednesday] 06-03-2013 at 14:56:23 pm.

In the poll, in which 4, 638 voters participated, the bulk of whom were from Malawi,  Peter Mutharika was the favourite with 2 739 votes representing 59.1% of the total votes cast; incumbent Pres. Joyce Banda of the People's Party (PP) came second with 886 (19.1%); United Democratic Front (UDF) 2014 presidential hopeful Atupele Muluzi came third with 810 votes (17.5%) while Malawi Congress Party and the rest of the parties in the country shared 203 votes (4.4%).

If the result of this opinion poll is anything to go by, then Peter, younger brother to late Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika, could be president if an election were held today. He was also the people’s choice in another poll conducted by Malawi's leading daily The Nation last December.

In The Nation poll, Peter Mutharika was first, Atupele Muluzi was second, Pres. Banda was third and Leader of Opposition John Tembo came fourth.

MaraPost editor Patrick Mwanza said “we did the poll to gauge the mood of the people” at this time.

“It’s not good news for the president but at the same time it doesn’t mean a year from now people will pull the lever for Mutharika. It's good news for Mutharika who should be happy that people think he could be president,” Mwanza said. “I suspect Mutharika is shrewd enough to appreciate the fact that the president still has some advantages of incumbency.”

MaraPost is running another poll on Malawi Members of Parliament seeking fuel allowance. To vote, click here
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© The Maravi Post 2013

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