•Nthumbi said if he was the Inspector General of Police, he would ban political opinion polls because they bring in a dangerous trajectory.
•According to him, Infotrak has never said anything that turned out to be a reality.
Image: COURTESY
Political analyst and security expert Dennis Nthumbi says he does not agree with the Infotrak opinion poll on how the presidential candidates are fairing ahead of the polls.
The poll, released on Wednesday, placed Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga ahead of UDA's William Ruto.
In an interview on Citizen TV, Nthumbi said if he was the Inspector General of Police, he would ban political opinion polls because they bring in a dangerous trajectory.
According to Nthumbi, Infotrak has never said anything that turned out to be a reality.
"When you give an opinion that certain people are winning, and that is not reflected through the ballot, that means you have pinned your opinion against the truth that democracy has delivered," Nthumbi said.
Nthumbi said polls make voters think that their candidate is on the verge of winning, yet over time, that candidate never wins.
"If an opinion poll that seemed like an authority said the candidate is leading by a certain measure and then there's a different outcome at the ballot, how do we go and convince them again that it was untrue and these are just political gimmicks?" he posed.
Nthumbi argues that opinion polls in this country sit as dangerous and we must never make elections a contest but a consensus, where we agree we have common issues.
The Infotrak poll showed Raila is the most preferred presidential candidate if elections were held now, compared to Ruto.
The survey conducted in all the 290 constituencies said 42 per cent of the respondents would vote for Raila while 38 per cent would pick Ruto.
The poll said Raila would garner 9.3 million votes and Ruto 8.4 million votes.
The survey's margin of error was plus or minus one.
A total of 9,000 respondents were interviewed between 23-27 May.