February 27, 2018 By Ishmael Sallieu Koroma
A Think Africa Institute survey on the recent presidential debate has positioned the presidential candidate of the National Grand Coalition (NGC), Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, as the ‘preferred ‘candidate for president come March 7th.
According to the survey, 39% of respondents preferred the NGC candidate to be president, followed by the Sierra Leones People’s Party (SLPP) Julius Maada Bio with 30%, APC Samura Kamara 26%, Samsumana of C4C 4%, and Mohamed Mansaray of ADP 1%.
The snap survey was done for over 36 hours to rate candidates’ ‘performance in the recent presidential debate hosted on February 15th at the Bintumani Hotel Conference Centre in Freetown.
This survey was launched 12 hours after the debate via WhatsApp (to Sierra Leone contacts) and Facebook App, using Google Form as the tool.
The survey administered a total of ten questions, but skipped personal and bio data information and generated a total of 20 data sets.
Across the board, the NGC, APC, and SLPP remain the top contenders.
Respondents were also asked about their impression with regards education, dual citizenship, economy, employment, protection of girls and women against violence, health, among others.
The institute used purposive and stratified random sampling, using Sierra Leonean contacts on their WhatsApp contact list and reinforced with Facebook posts.
“We also deployed a limited number of enumerators in Bo, Kenema and Makeni to conduct face-to-face interviews (these were not segmented in the data). The survey expected 600 responses over the 36 hours and by close of the survey there were a total of 3,616 responses.”
Think Africa Institute [TAI] is a consulting firm and think tank incorporated in the Netherlands in September 2017, and has been working for about four years in Sierra Leone and other West African countries.