This was another popular question that was attempted by majority of the candidates. The good candidates defined public opinion as the general opinion that the majority of people in a country hold on a given public issue at a particular time; they were handsomely rewarded. They were also able to identify the factors that promote public opinion in a state as demanded by the Ob' part of the question.
However, the major obstacles to candidates' high performance in this question was their failure to expatiate some of the points they identified. The overall candidates' performance in the question was well above average. Some of the factors candidates listed in their answers included:
-the use of the mass media should be free;
-encouraging the use of opinion polls on issues;
-responsible and responsive social institution;
-existence of political parties will help to mould the opinion of the people, etc.
