NASA coalition flag bearer Raila Odinga displays his party nomination certificate after he was endorsed as the ODM presidential candidate during the National Delegates Conference at Kasarani on May 5, 2017. [Photo: the-star.co.ke]Nasa Presidential candidate Raila Odinga will have a first round victory in August 8 polls according to the American research firm that conducted the poll that Nasa released on Wednesday showing Raila Odinga slightly ahead of President Uhuru Kenyatta.The firm, Zogby International, showed that Raila now leads with 47.4 per cent of registered voters, against 46.7 per cent for Uhuru as reported by the Star.The other six presidential candidates will garner only one per cent of the 19.6 million votes. Five per cent of Kenyans remain undecided where Zogby predicts that Raila will bag nearly half of the undecided voters for a clear first round victory.The poll shows that 47 per cent of the 980,000 undecided voters is considering voting for the ODM leader compared to Uhuru’s 27 per cent.According to the Star, the results reported on Wednesday are based on 2,983 face-to-face interviews conducted between July 8 and 13 in all the 47 counties in Kenya. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2%, 19 times out of 20.Zogby released the results via teleconferencing from the US at the Serena Hotel on Wednesday.Asked to speak to concerns about the accuracy of the numbers reported, Zogby said as quoted by the Star: “I’ve been involved in thousands of polls like this, over many years, in dozens of countries, including in Kenya. I took part in this project from start to finish and can say unequivocally that the work is first-rate."He added: "Of course, no poll is perfect but for those who find it convenient to dismiss these results, well, the kindest thing I can say is they are engaging in wishful thinking.”The pollster is, however, not among the trusted in the US and some of its previous surveys have been described by critics as 'outlier'.

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