UPA (Utanian Press Agency)
Release: September 27, 300 AP.

Luka Herald performs final poll as voting begins

The Luka Herald performed the country's very last political poll before the election began on Wednesday morning, and confirms that the political landscape is as uncertain as all the Kapur-Zeitgeist polls have been showing.

The poll was conducted on Tuesday night by 300 political pollsters interviewing 2500 eligible voters. The biggest discovery, said Douglas Warton, Political Poll Editor, compared to the July poll was that there was far many more doubtful seats, those where the winning margin was less than the poll's margin of error. Some 28 seats, or 20% of the seats, fall into this category, with the Democratic Party being in contention for two-thirds of them.

The results are shown below, with the Party name, the polled raw votes of a total 2,547 voters, each voter "representing" ten thousand voters, and the number of seats they are reasonably certain to win according to the poll, and the (number) of doubtful seats the party is in contention for, in order of popularity:

PartyVotesSeatsContention
Peoples Party (PPP)486374
Utani-Sædaj Party (USP)344226
Conservative Party (Con)334189
Democratic Party (Dem)293816
Liberal Nationalist Party (LNP)22969
Utani Progressive Party (UPP)17168
Cruis-Democratic Party (CDP)16763
Utanian Burovian Movement (UBM)15736
Republican Party (Rep)13841
Yannists (Yan)732-
Utanian Nationalist Party (UNP)65--
Liberal Party (Lib)26-1
Democratic Socialist Party (DSP)19-1
Free Green Collective (FGC)19--
Mounting the challenge against the two most popular parties, who are reasonably certain to hold at least fifty-nine seats in the new parliament, is a possible coalition of six more conservative parties: the next six most popular parties, who would hold a combined forty-seven seats. Either coalition needs 71 seats in the Parliament to have a viable government.

The Liberal Nationalist Party (LNP) have made the most impressive gains in the past few weeks, polling 11% in Lasanne state, up from 7% in August. Both the Burovians and Progressive parties have slowed the slide of voters to the Conservatives who made only marginal gains. The other surprise is the Nationalist Party, which now commands 3% of the national vote.

Voting began on Wednesday morning with hundreds queuing up outside polling booths for the 9am opening. Utanian Electoral Commission staff declared the opening a success, with over 300,000 voters being processed in the first two hours of the Wednesday morning.

A Luka radio station declared Frank De Brovey the first Utanian to vote, as he emerged from the Luka central polling booth at 9:01, awarding him Û5000.
©UPA, 300 AP.

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