|
|
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Exit poll to predict election winner by Tuesday (2:59 p.m.)
MANILA -- An exit poll should predict the winner of Monday's Philippine presidential election one day after voting booths close, the independent survey firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) said.
Some 43 million Filipinos are eligible to vote in the poll to elect their new leader, with President Gloria Arroyo enjoying a seven percentage-point lead over movie star rival Fernando Poe in the latest SWS survey.
The group will question 12,000 voters and should be able to predict the outcome provided the winning margin is more than the 1.3 percentage-point error margin of the exit poll, SWS vice president Linda Luz Guerrero said Saturday.
The nationwide result will be released "by 6:00 pm (1000 GMT Tuesday) the day after," with the voting trends in Manila expected to be known by 3:00 am Tuesday (1900 GMT Monday), she said.
Guerrero told AFP the survey group was working around a Philippine law that prohibits pollsters from taking exit polls within the vicinity of voting centers.
Instead, 1,250 interviewers will visit the respondents in their homes after they have voted, she said.
Social Weather has accurately predicted the outcome of the past two presidential elections. AFP |
|
|
|
