Above 76pc people interested in election: Survey

KABUL (Pajhwok): A new survey shows more than 76 percent of people are interested to participate in this month’s presidential election while 22 percent are not interested due to distrust and security problems.

The survey has been conducted by the Afghanistan Research and Social Study Organization (ARSSO) during a period of 40 days in all 34 provinces of the country.

Nearly 4,500 people from different walks of life were interviewed as part of the survey. The questions were about whether the interviewees would participate in election or not and tell reasons as well as some other questions.

The poll published today shows more than 76 percent of the interviewees said that they would participate in the September 28 presidential election while 22 percent others said they would not participate and 1.5 percent others were undecided.

To the question about not participating in the election, 50 percent of the respondents said did not trust the election process. Nineteen percent others said they would not participate in the poll due to security problems, 14 percent gave other factors and 12 percent said they lacked voter cards or national identity cards.

Nasim Sadat, head of ARSSO, said that they launched the survey for collecting people’s views about prevention of misuse of authority, power and to ensure transparency and accountability.

“This is a real time framework.. a way for reflecting people’s views and voices and it is product of an IT company that works in social research,” he said.

Navid Rahmani, a public relations officer with ARSSO, said that the real time poll was a good method for reflecting public opinions and was effective for addressing people’s challenges and needs.

He said the system could be useful in national processes. This poll was done through telephonic contacts.

Mds/ma