EIGHTY percent of the supporters of presidential candidate Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, have already made up their minds and will surely vote for them, survey firm Publicus Asia Inc. said.

According to the Marcos’ camp, the development prompted analysts to conclude that both he and Duterte could well be on their way to victory.

Marcos cemented his huge lead against other candidates after posting a 57% voter preference in the April 19-21 survey conducted by Publicus Asia Inc.

Meanwhile, Duterte scored 59 percent.

Dr. David Yap Jr., chief data scientist of Publicus Asia, noted the significant increase in numbers of both Marcos and Duterte in “firm voters” category.

“Another point of interest if we look closely at the numbers is that the share of the firm BBM (Marcos) voters rose from 70 percent in February to 80 percent in late April,” Yap said.

“Similarly, the share of very firm Sara voters rose from 75 percent in February to 80 percent in late April,” he added. Yap explained that based on history, the voters become even more convinced of their candidates as the election nears.

“I think it is something that all of us voters can attest to that as election date nears we firm up our support, we firm up our preferences and we become more and more committed to the choices that we have made thus far,” he said.

“It’s a very common occurrence among voters that as election day nears, they become more and more convinced of who they are voting for,” he added.

The PAHAYAG National Tracker polled 1,500 respondents from a panel of 200,000 Filipinos.