DOI: 10.5176/2251-2403_PSSIR17.8
Authors: Manasi Phadke, Manasi Phadke
Abstract:
Low voter turnout has been a major issue in the Municipal Corporation elections in Maharashtra, the third most industrialized state of India. In order to drive effective voter awareness programs, the local administration has to target the programs correctly. The study devises a methodology to identify those voter groups which comprise the rare, intermittent and regular voters in Pune, the second biggest city in Maharashtra. It finds that there is a higher percentage of rare and intermittent voters amongst females, young people, non-native people and citizens staying in Pune for less than 10 years. It also finds that higher education and higher income groups normally do not vote regularly. The findings of the study were actually used in the recently conducted Municipal Corporation elections to drive targeted voter awareness programs; the voter turnout in the 2017 elections in Pune was seen to be higher than the earlier elections.
Keywords: Rare voters, intermittent voters, regular voters,voter turnout, Political Interest Index
Updating...