General Election 2024: 87pc voters trust electoral process as ‘free and fair’: Gallup

ISLAMABAD: An election day survey, conducted by Gallup Pakistan on February 8 across all the four provinces of the country, showed that a significant majority of 87 per cent voters trusted the electoral process as “free and fair”.

A press release issued by Gallup on Thursday night said the majority of a random sample of voters from all across the country perceived that the polling staff was impartial on the election day. The figure was similar to the General Election 2018.

The survey was not meant to be an early prediction or to monitor the fairness of elections. It was a survey to determine the age, income and education composition of the vote banks of leading political parties. But it also captured perceptions about the impartiality of the polling staff, the role of media in election campaigning and a host of other issues.

In Section 1, the survey discussed voter perceptions about the impartiality of polling staff and fairness of the election. Section 2 discussed motivations to vote, categorising them into seven voter types. Section 3 discussed voters’ sense of efficacy of their vote. The final section discusses the new federal government. The findings are based on a survey of 1,500 statistically selected voters from all the four provinces of the country.

There was an eight per cent decline in those who voted for candidate belonging to their ‘biradari’ [clan]. Forty-eight per cent said ‘biradari’ decided about their vote, 6pc more voters in GE-2024 than GE-2018 believe that their vote will help improve the condition of the country.

Eight in 10 voters opposed a coalition government and four in 10 voters wanted the government to focus on economic, human capital, energy and infrastructure reforms, showing a 23pc increase since GE-2018.

The voters were classified into seven different categories based on their motivations to vote for a particular candidate. Since GE-2018, the proportion of party-loyal voters has increased by 7pc, while development-seeking voters have seen a decrease in their proportion by 7pc. Patron-seeking voters have decreased by 8pc, while legislation-minded voters have decreased by 1pc. Morality-seeking voters have increased by 7pc, while the biradari-bound voters have decreased significantly by 3pc. The proportion of sceptic voters has remained nearly the same.

Voters were asked whether the NA candidate they voted for was from their ‘biradari’. In response, 48pc said ‘biradari’ decided about their vote, while 52pc said they ignored the biradari factor.

Six per cent more voters in GE-2024 than in GE-2018 believed that their vote would help improve the condition of the country. Voters expressed a combination of hope and despair on different aspects of the electoral process. Some 91pc were confident their vote could make a difference.

The share of voters seeking morality saw a rise of 7pc since the last elections.

To another question, eight in 10 voters said they were against a coalition government. However, 17pc voters favoured a coalition government.

To yet another question, four in 10 voters said they wanted the government to focus on economic, human capital, energy and infrastructure reforms, showing their increase by 23pc since GE-2013.

Voters were also asked what would be their first advice to the new government. Sixteen per cent said “make Pakistan a modern and powerful country”, 25pc “protect the faith and values of Muslims”, 19pc “give opportunity to educated people to make the government instead of powerful families”, and 40pc “provide electricity, roads, education, health facilities and employment to the public”.