GUWAHATI: With the onset of the candidate campaigns for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it is important for all political parties to take note of what it is that people actually want from their governments and a recent report by an independent survey has revealed just that.
Based on the “All India Survey on Governance Issues and Voting Behaviour 2018” done by an independent NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) across 534 Lok Sabha constituencies, the priorities for voters in the Gauhati Lok Sabha Constituency include three main things.
The voters want “Better Employment Opportunities,” “Better Roads” and “Lower Food Prices for Consumers.”
All three priorities were listed as “below average” with each getting scores of 2.58, 2.44 and 1.39 respectively. This score is based out of a total score of 5, for which 3 is considered an average score. Anything below 3 is considered to be “below average” and anything above 3 is “above average.”
The survey conducted describes the status of 31 of the most important issues for voters in their particular region in terms of their “capacity, governance and specific roles in improving the living conditions of the voters,” according to the report.
“The purpose of these periodic surveys is mainly to assess voters’ priorities and to rate the performance of the government on these priorities. It does not rate the performance of any particular elected representative but reports the voters’ perception of the overall performance of the government,” ADR report.
Voter priorities for the rest of Assam
Similarly, for people in Assam, the overall top voter priorities include “Better Employment Opportunities,” “Better Hospitals/Primary Healthcare” and “Better Roads.” 47.99% voters prioritized and asked for better employment opportunities in the state, 45.78% voters want better hospitals/primary healthcare and 34.56% voters prioritized better roads. They received the score of 2.04, 2.08 and 2.30 out of 5 respectively. All were again labeled under the “below average” category as it ranks under 3.
In Assam, all 14 constituencies were surveyed. These constituencies were further divided based on urban and rural demographics.
For urban Assam, the preferences are the same as that of the Lok Sabha Gauhati constituency. “Better Employment Opportunities” received a score of 1.93 out of 5, “Better Roads” got a score of 2.15 out of 5 and “Lower Food Prices for Consumers” has a 1.97 score out of 5. All rank “below average.”
In rural Assam, the priorities differed slightly. The first preference is for “Better Hospitals/Primary Healthcare Centres” which received a score of 2.12 out of 5, “Better Employment Opportunities” got a score of 2.08 out of 5 and “Agriculture Loan Availability” got a score of 2.08 out of 5. All were ranked “below average.”
“The funds with the government are raised from the people through various taxes. In this sense, people’s priorities need to be heard. The survey shows what the expectations of the people are from the government and how they rate the performance of the government on these priorities,” the survey stated.
This is the third All India Survey of voters with over 2.7 lakhs (2,73,487 to be exact) respondents in nearly all constituencies of the Lok Sabha. At least 500 respondents from each constituency were interviewed. It was conducted during October to December 2018. The first survey was conducted in 2014 before the Lok Sabha elections then and the second one in 2017. These surveys are the largest ever done in the world in one country.
Based on reports, the accuracy of the survey is 95% and the true values are within 5% of the survey predictions.