UDA party support has declined by 11% – TIFA
While the United Democratic Alliance(UDA) party remains the dominant political party in Kenya, its support has declined by 11 per cent over the last six months.
This is according to new research by Trends and Insights Africa (TIFA).
In the report, TIFA said UDA support now stands at 34% from 43 per cent in March.
At the same time, ODM’s support also declined with a similar figure from 29% to 18%.
Consequently, the number of Kenyans who declined to declare support for either party increased making it the second most popular ‘outfit’party’.
“In other words, “none”/”undecided”/”no response” is now (or at least was, at the end of June) the second most popular ‘party’, and almost as popular as the UDA, the ruling party,” TIFA said.
Adding;
“UDA’s support level as of late June had declined (by 11%, from 45% to 34% since TIFA’s March survey). Yet the same has occurred with ODM, with its support level declining since March by the same amount (from 29% to 18%).
“By contrast, the proportion of Kenyans who now support no party (or who refused to answer the question at all) has nearly tripled (from 14% to 40%), indicating a massive drop in public confidence in the two main parties that stand on opposite sides of the nation’s political divide.”
Notably, the poll shows that nearly one in five Kenyans express support for (at least) two political parties:
one national, and one (mainly) local.
According to TIFA, this suggests the increasing need to build election coalitions that take into account regional and communal interests.
“The fact that many supporters of the main contesting national level parties express support for the same such(mainly) local level parties underscores the declining salience of clear policy contrasts (let alone
ideology) in terms of the partisan ‘menu’ that voters must peruse as elections approach,” TIFA said.