While political parties harp on their vote banks, a baseline survey commissioned by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka indicates that political party sympathy is a minor motivating factor for voters to participate in elections.
A team of researchers from the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), led by S. Madheswaran, professor and head of the Centre for Economic Studies and Policy at ISEC, surveyed 4,452 people from 45 Assembly constituencies spread over 23 districts.
The Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) Baseline Survey 2023 captures the respondents’ attitude towards elections as it reflects their motivations and influencing factors. This survey revealed that party sympathy is a motivating factor for 4.4% of respondents. This aspect was found to be more important in urban areas at 5.6%, as against 3.2% in rural areas.
The survey shows that at the aggregate level, a larger share of respondents (79.3%) have reported that the most important reason for voting is that they consider it their right or duty.
‘Good’ candidate
Over half of the respondents (51.1%) said that they were motivated to vote as the candidate was good. Other important motivations include: “I got registered on the electoral roll” (13.1%), “the candidate was of my choice and from my community and religion” (6.9%); “I wanted to defeat a particular candidate and/or a political party (5.4%)”. The respondents were given multiple choice questions.
Men are more influenced by friends, with 5.8% having reported that they voted because they were influenced to vote, while among women, that stood at 3.8%. While 3.1% of the respondents said that they cast their vote due to threat or coercion, 4.5% said that they voted because the head of their family asked them to vote.
Senior citizens vs. youngsters
Among senior citizens (respondents aged 61 years and above), voting as a right/duty (84.2%), followed by the choice of a good candidate (55.3%) were the two primary reasons to participate in the election process, the survey shows. On the other hand, casting a vote due to threat or coercion (0.5%) and being influenced by a free offer of money or liquor, were the least likely reasons for this group of respondents to obstruct their voting participation, as per the survey.
B.P. Vani, associate professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Policy, ISEC, who is the co-author of the survey, said that young voters in the 18 to 25 years cohort seemed to give relatively less importance to casting their vote. As against 97.7% of senior citizens, only 71.2% of young voters participated in the electoral process, she said, quoting the survey. “This, despite all efforts by the Election Commission to increase awareness among youth,” she pointed out.
No identity card
Lack of an electoral identity card was a major reason for 64.7% of eligible voters not voting in the elections. This was followed by not receiving a voter slip since they did not belong to that particular constituent assembly, with 20.5% of total respondents giving this as their reason for not casting a vote, she added.
