ILOILO – If the elections were held today, Cong. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. would come out victorious in the race for provincial governor.
In a province-wide survey conducted by Random Access Consultants, Inc. from July 25 to 29, 2018, Defensor got an overall voter preference of 60.7 percent. His possible opponent, Cong. Ferjenel Biron, got 32.2 percent only.
In these face-to-face interviews with 1,200 sampling respondents from 120 barangays in the entire province, the margin of error was placed at +3 percent, according to the surveying firm.
Of the total respondents – who were at least 18 years old and registered voters of the province – 220 came from the 1st District; 200 from the 2nd District; 260 from the 3rd District; 240 from the 4th District; and 280 from the 5th District.
Seventy-four respondents, or 6.2 percent of those surveyed, said they have not yet decided whom to choose from the two gubernatorial wannabes.
The question asked of the respondents was: “Kon subong nga adlaw ang eleksyon, sin-o ang imo pilion sa pagka-governador (If the elections were held today, who would you vote for governor)?”
A total of 728 voters, or 60.7 percent representing the total number of the voting population in the province of Iloilo, said Defensor was their man. Biron got 398 positive responses, or 33.2 percent.
The survey results by district – with the same question – also showed Defensor bagging the highest voter preference except in the 4th District of Biron.
In the 1st District, Defensor got 56.4 percent while Biron had 31.4 percent.
In the 2nd District, Defensor got 74.5 percent; Biron, 21 percent.
Defensor got 81.2 percent in the 3rd District while Biron, 10.8 percent.
Biron got the upper hand in the 4th District with his 73.8 percent voter preference; Defensor got 25.8 percent.
In the 5th District, Defensor got 65 percent while Biron had 29.3 percent only.
The survey also showed Defensor enjoying the highest score in all levels of social strata, sex classification, educational attainment, and age levels, except for age 18-21 wherein Defensor and Biron were statistically tied.
The comprehensive survey also rated Biron and 1st District’s Cong. Richard Garin who is presumed to be interested to run for governor of Iloilo, too.
In the overall result of the province-wide survey, Biron got 47.5 percent; whereas, Garin got 37.5 percent of the total number of votes.
By district, Garin won in the 1st District with a total number of votes equivalent to 74.5 percent; Biron got 19.1 percent.
In the 2nd District, Garin got 46.5 percent of votes; Biron got 41.5 percent.
In the 3rd District, Garin got 37.3 percent while Biron had 34.6 percent.
Biron topped the 4th District with his 91.3 percent voter preference; Garin got 4.6 percent.
In the 5th District, Biron got 48.6 percent while Garin, 30.4 percent.
The survey’s level of confidence was placed at 95 percent./PN
