October 2, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 5, 1424

LOS ANGELES, Oct 1: A poll released on Wednesday confirmed actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s likely victory in the California recall election and condemned Governor Gray Davis to a solid defeat.

The Los Angeles Times poll found a solid majority of 56 per cent of likely voters in favour of ousting Davis, a Democrat, from office, with 40 per cent favouring the Republican action-movie star to replace him, compared with 32 per cent for Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, and 15 per cent for state Sen. Tom McClintock, a conservative Republican.

The poll reinforced the conclusions of another survey earlier this week that also gave Schwarzenegger a strong lead going into Tuesday’s election. More significantly, it also differed markedly from the Los Angeles Times poll in early September that showed the recall race to be a close one and predicted that Bustamante would beat Schwarzenegger in the run-off.

Analysts have warned, however, that the polls could be inaccurate because there are no recall election precedents that can help pollsters predict likely turnout and other factors.

Still the numbers reinforced a growing perception that Davis has lost momentum with voters and that the Austrian-born former Mr. Universe body-building champion will likely move to the governor’s mansion in Sacramento.

The election will ask voters two questions: if they favour the recall of Davis and who they would like to succeed him. If Davis fails to win 50-per-cent support in the first question, the candidate with the most votes in the second question takes over — even if the candidate wins less than 50-per-cent support. The poll also found that the central theme of Schwarzenegger’s candidacy had struck a chord with likely voters.—dpa