ISLAMABAD: Respondents of three different surveys have said they consider both factors before casting their vote — the political party of their choice as well as the candidate contesting the election.
Gallup Pakistan, IPSOS and Pulse Consultant conducted a survey between April 10-20 of 3,000 respondents of the NA-249 constituency.
The question posed to the constituents was a simple one: what, in their opinion, would the constituents of NA-249 prefer when casting their votes; a candidate, a party or would they keep both the candidate and the party in mind?
IPSOS
In response to the question: "What do the constituents prefer when they vote?", as per the IPSOS survey, 50% of the constituents kept both the political party and the candidate in mind whilst voting. Twenty four per cent thought the constituency's voters will cast their votes keeping in mind a political party, while only 10% of the constituents said they would vote for the candidate.
As per a survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan, 34% said they preferred to vote for both the candidate and the party, while 32% said they prefer to vote for a political party, regardless of the candidate.
Only 23% said they would prefer the candidate when heading to the ballot box.
The Pulse Consultant survey results varied from the other two. Only 14% of the respondents said they would prefer to vote for both the candidate and the party on election day while only 12% said they would keep in mind the candidate when they cast their votes.
Twenty-two per cent thought they would consider the political party of their choosing while voting.
IPSOS, Gallup Pakistan, and Pulse Consultant then conducted a separate survey each to ask voters what they themselves prefer when they cast their votes.
Here are the results.
When asked what they prefer while voting, 68% of the respondents said they considered both the party and the candidate, while 17% said they voted for a political party.
Only 15% said the single factor they kept in mind while voting was a candidate.
As far as the IPSOS survey is concerned, 51% said they considered both the candidate and the party while voting. On the other hand, 25% said they voted for the political party of their choice.
Twenty-five per cent of the respondents said they considered the candidate only when voting.
Meanwhile, in Gallup Pakistan's survey, 37% of the respondents said they considered both the candidate and the political party while casting their votes, while 31% said the political party of their choosing was the most important factor for them when it came to casting their vote.
Only 22% said a candidate would be the most important factor in their minds when they cast their votes.