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General Academic Strand 2 (Group 4)

Dela Cruz, Erica Guen


Dosol, Jean
Elogsong, Olsen
Elustre, John Carlo
Madula, John Eric Madula
Manatad, Ana Marie
Morales, Jhoram
Vasquez, Marie Chris
VOTING BEHAVIOR AND PREFERENCES OF FIRST TIME VOTERS IN BUTUAN CITY

A political system defines the process for making official government decisions (Heslop,

2016). It also determines what particular government a country has. A government is a system or

a group of people that governs the state or a country. According to Aristotle, if sovereignty

resides in one person, it is Monarchy, its perverted form is Tyranny. If sovereignty resides in a

small minority of the population, it is Aristocracy. If this small minority uses the sovereignty for

its own selfish ends, it is Oligarchy. If the sovereign power resides in a large proportion of the

population, it is a polity. Its perverted form is Democracy.

A democratic government contrasts to forms of government where power is either held

by one, as in a monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals, as in an

oligarchy or aristocracy (Hartmann, 2014). A political system where people has the power to

choose the representative to govern and entrust the country is called indirect democracy.

“The Philippines is a democratic and republican State”, according to the Philippine

constitution, Article II section 1. The origins of democracy in the country started when the

Americans colonized the Philippines in 1898; it planned to grant the self-determination to the

country under the principle of democracy. Filipino worked in the American administration and

quickly come to the concept of self-government. When the commonwealth existed in 1917-1935,
political parties were formed and most of the population was educated unto accepting the

principles of democracy, which meant having a ruling party and opposition. Then the Philippines

developed a constitution named Malolos Constitution. After several constitutions, it was changed

into the 1987 constitution (May and Selochan, 2004).

“Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them”.

Article II section 1 provides. Therefore, eligible citizens in the country have the power to choose

their leaders and it needs to have an electoral system. An electoral system is a set of rules that

determine who are worthy of that specific position and it is conducted to determine their

qualities. Political electoral systems are stated in the constitution and electoral laws and typically

conducted by the Commission on Election.

The qualification of the voters is stated in the 1987 constitution of the Republic of the

Philippines. Article 5, Section 1, provides: “Suffrage may be exercised by all citizens of the

Philippines not otherwise disqualified by law, who are at least eighteen years of age, and who

shall have resided in the Philippines for at least one year, and in the place wherein they propose

to vote, for at least six months immediately preceding the election. No literacy, property, or other

substantive requirement shall be imposed on the exercise of suffrage.”

There are three branches wherein power is equally divided in the government of the

Philippines: executive, legislative, and judicial. The government has the duty to act in the best
interests of its citizens to regulate balance. The leader of the government holds the title of

president and is in charge of the executive branch. The legislative branch is usually called the

congress. Citizens vote directly to elect the president and also vote to elect local representatives

to the congress. Judges of the judicial branch are appointed by the president and confirmed by

the congress.

The positions have limited terms, election in the Philippines are divided by it.

Presidential elections are held every six years. The last one was held on May 9, 2016. Congress,

Senate, and local elections are held in the years of presidential elections and three years before

and after them.

An upcoming mid-term election is to be held this May 2019. Politicians and leaders that

are running for a position is on the move and they are doing their best to persuade the people to

vote for them and is willing to invest, may it be physical or financial. The National and Local

Elections in the Philippines were never safe from any issue or problem. Some of these problems

include vote buying, violence, influence of political dynasties, and inefficiency of vote counting

machines and black propaganda (Oliveros, 2013). Voters choose candidates on very different

reasons, including campaign methods and characteristics of candidates. There is an increased

concern on looking at the basis of how voters exercise their suffrage, the basis on how they vote,

and especially on the voting choices (Santiago, 2012).


Voting behavior is different from voting preference. Voting behavior is a set of personal

electoral activities, including participation in electoral campaigns, turnout at the polls, and voting

preference is choosing for whom to vote (Bratton, 2013). This study will be in touch with both

the analysis of the behavior and preference of the first time voters.

Every election, the voter’s preference varies depending on various factors. To support

this statement, the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform of the Philippines (IPER) in their

1995 study, the main determinants of the Filipino vote, in respective ranks are; popularity,

endorsement, benefit to voters, and party program or platform. Meanwhile, on their 2003 study,

the IPER presented a significantly different determining factors of the Filipino vote, these are

now; the benefit factor, party program or platform, popularity and endorsement, respectively

(IPER, 2004). These would present that there is a significant shift of the frame of the Filipino

voter on the basis of voting choices.

In line with this, the paper aims to examine the voting behavior and preferences of first

time voters in Barangay Libertad, Butuan City. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following

questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of socioeconomic status?

2. What is/are the preference(s) of the first time voters in choosing political candidates?

a. Amount of money (Vote buying)

b. Quality of the proposed projects (Platforms)

c. Personally Known (Popularity)


d. Good speaker (Communication Skill)

e. Good personally background (Character)

f. Religious Affiliation

g. Family choice/affinity

3. Is there a significant difference in the voters’ preferences when grouped according to

socioeconomic status?

The theory of downs (1957) named Rational choice theory implies that every individual

has a rational side which is capable of making consistent choices (Downs 1957). It is very

extensive and does not limit to economics (Ole 2013). Since an area of this theory is often

applied in elections, it applies to models of political science.

It is assumed that actors are rational at least to the extent that they make choices that will

maximize their utility. In other words, before making a choice they consider the gained benefit of

the choice (Elster 2007). An individual focuses on the outcome. A rational individual will choose

the preference that yields the highest utility. So as in voting, a voter prefers a candidate that

he/she can gain more benefit from.

Voting is of societal gain. Because of this the actor must be able to distinguish the given

utility between the preferences at least to the degree that he prefers the first to the second, prefers

the second to the first, or is indifferent between them (Elster 2007). Meaning to say, upon

making a decision on who to vote, a voter should be capable to make a distinction between the

candidates to assure that he/she can gain more by voting.


It was implied that voters are rational thinkers and they choose a candidate or vote for

their benefits. Furthermore, it elicits the idea of voting behavior which the study aims to

determine together with the preferences of the first time voters. With all of these, the researcher

come up with a study focusing on the voting behavior and preferences of the first time voters in

Butuan City.

Respondents’
Socioeconomic
status

Preferences of the first


Political
time voters Candidates

Figure 1: Paradigm of the Study


Research Design and Methods

The study will be needing respondents that fall in the category of first time voters. In line

with this, the researchers will be using random sampling which is a type of a probability

sampling technique. A simple random sampling is defined as one in which each elements of the

population have an equal and independent chance of being selected, and a descriptive design

with correlation method since this describes the voting behavior and preferences of the first time

voters. It is descriptive-correlational because it intends to know whether there is a significant

relationship between respondents’ socioeconomic status and voter’s preferences. The study is to

be conducted in Barangay Libertad, Butuan City. The primary sources of data are the

information gathered from the selected locale is through answering the survey questionnaire. A

total of 117 respondents calculated using 8% margin of error and 92% confidence level. The

respondents’ availability, accessibility and of consent are needed to continue the study.

Table 1. Population and Sample Size of the Respondents

Barangay Libertad

Population size 3875


Sample size 117

The study considered the requirements of a good data collection. The researcher designed

a survey questionnaire as one of the data collection instrument for this study. It aims to obtain a
clear and valid response eliciting relevant information concerning the voting behavior and

preferences of the respondents which is the first time voter.

A proper consent and formality is a must in gathering data so an approval inside the

selected research locale is needed. After the letter will be permitted, the questionnaires will be

administered directly to the chosen sample. The researchers will be using the respondents’ vacant

time to avoid conflict. The respondents’ will be given enough time to fill up the questionnaire.

Respondents describing their profile and preferences as regards the qualities of the candidates.

For instances, age, religion, civil status and socioeconomic status.

Responses to the questionnaire by the participants will be statistically analyzed using

Analysis of Variance and/or t-Test for Independent Samples. Inferential statistics such as random

sampling of data taken from a population to describe and make inferences about the population.

The performance distribution will be used to analyze the problem of certain individuals,

regarding the profile of the respondents and the perception of the qualities of the candidates. The

perception of the first time voters as regards the qualities of the candidates is measured using the

following rank with corresponding verbal description:

Table 2. Arbitrary Scale for…

Rank Verbal Description Average


1 Not important 1.00 – 1.86
2 Least important 1.87 – 2.71
3 Fairly Important 2.72 – 3.57
4 Important 3.58 – 4.43
5 Moderately Important 4.44 – 5.29
6 Very Important 5.30 – 6.14
7 Strongly Important 6.15 – 7.00

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