Voters favour Munter for mayor: poll

New poll resultssuggest Alex Munter maintains a healthy lead in the race to become Ottawa's mayor.

Of 600 Ottawa voters interviewed in the past week, 34 per cent said they will vote for the veteran city councillor in the municipal election on Nov. 13.

Larry O'Brien was in second place with 25 per cent support, while incumbent Bob Chiarelli was the choice of 20 per cent of those polled.

Onlyone per cent of respondents said they would vote for any of the other four mayoral candidates.

Twenty per cent did not respond or were undecided.

The poll was conducted by the polling company Unimarketing for the CBC's French language service, Radio-Canada, and the newspaper Le Droit.

Among decided voters, Munter's support is 43 per cent.

O'Brien's supporters most likely to commit to voting

Unimarketing president Raynald Harvey said that doesn't mean Munter will definitely win, as 36 per cent of voters say they will probably or certainly change their minds about whom to vote for before voting day.

In addition, Harvey said, the survey suggests O'Brien supporters are most likely to say they will definitely vote.

"They're very motivated to go to [the] poll. And depending on the turnout at the poll next Monday, maybe it would help Mr. O'Brien to close in."

Overall, 87 per cent of respondents said they will certainly or probably vote on Monday.

The poll of 469 anglophone and 191 francophone Ottawa residents was conducted by telephone between Nov. 2 and Nov. 7. It is considered accurate withinfour percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The 600 respondents represent fewer than half the people called. Among the rest, 36 per cent refused the survey and 17 per cent did not respond.