Poe tops Pulse Asia poll; Duterte edges out Binay for 2nd place

Senator Grace Poe maintained her lead in preelection surveys as she topped the latest Pulse Asia-ABS-CBN poll, with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in close second.

The poll, which was conducted days before the Supreme Court cleared the way for the first-term senator to run for president, showed Poe leading with 28 percent.

Duterte, meanwhile, got 24 percent. Vice President Jejomar Binay and administration bet Manuel “Mar” Roxas shared third place, getting 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago only got three percent of the respondents to choose her as their preferred successor to President Benigno Aquino III.

Poe was the top pick of respondents from the National Capital Region (30 percent) and the rest of Luzon (36 percent). Visayas remains as a bailiwick for Roxas as he is the top choice of the respondents from that region with 37 percent. Duterte led the choices for president among Mindanao respondents with 47 percent.

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In terms of social classes, Duterte was the top choice of respondents from Class ABC (30 percent), Poe led in Class D (29) while Roxas was picked by respondents from Class E (26 percent).

The survey also asked its respondents to pick their “second choice” presidential candidate should their chosen candidate failed to continue his or her bid.

Almost three in 10 respondents (29 percent) said that they would vote for Poe should their first choice for president back out from the race. In second place was Binay with 21 percent, followed by Roxas and Duterte with 14 percent each.

READ: Poe grabs top spot in latest SWS poll; Binay loses big

Meanwhile, should Poe withdraw from the presidential race, 29 percent of her voters would instead choose Binay.

The survey was conducted from March 1 to 6, with 2,600 respondents who are registered voters with biometrics and a ± 1.9% error margin at the 95 percent confidence level. IDL