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Voting Behaviour: Everyone Has a Box

Now that the elections are around the corner for Kenyans, do you already know who you will vote for in the coming general elections? Is your choice of political party influenced by your personal reasons or a set of external factors? Are you one of the late-deciders making your choice in the moment you see the ballot paper?
These are some of the questions running through my head, trying to figure out how people vote.

No matter what voting type you are, you will probably be convinced that the decision you make is your own and only influenced by your political views and personal principles.


We should not forget the impact of our friends and the conversations we have with them, is one of the main factors which influence the way people vote. I believe there are two types of voters: ‘Opinion-Leaders’ and ‘Opinion-Followers’. Both groups have the same socioeconomic background, but what separates them is a higher interest in the elections and media coverage knowledge by the opinion leaders.

Additionally, the opinion leaders also have a grounded knowledge on the political issues and are often equipped with a kind of formal authority towards their opinion followers. According to my previous and current observations the opinion followers fraction is bigger than the opinion i.e. more than 50% of the voters are opinion followers. This  means that if you belong to the opinion followers group then your choice is born out from information filtered by your opinion leaders, not the news, media or other sources.


Other people have tendencies to vote for someone who is about to win, even if this contradicts their own political views because they want to be on the winner’s side after the election. The winner predictions can be obtained forehand by the survey reports released by the media from time to time done cleverly to effect this. Although the ratio of the people sampled for the survey to the total country's population is normally very small.

There is a small segment of the population that vote for the less popular because of personal reasons and the candidate's personality.

It is clear that media and your acquaintances can have a big impact on your voting decision without even realizing it yourself.We should all stay focused and select candidates we feel can tackle the upcoming difficulties in our constituencies, counties and country as a whole for a better tomorrow.

7 comments:

  1. Enigma MD said...:

    Couldn't agree more. The Kenyan Political scene is in dire need of change especially now that politicians cleverly keep on camouflaging bad their intents in new political parties.

  1. Dirishani said...:

    True up to now, I'm in the confused box struggling not to be in the 'whats the point of voting anyway'. Thanks for your comment.

  1. Rum-Punch Drunk said...:

    It is absolutely true that everyone should consider the right to vote. It is important that each person looks at the candidate and decides for themselves whether that person or group is representing their own values or not. It could be that you are the person that swings the vote in your favour! If you do not vote why should you even complain? you should accept the consequences of who wins. Many people around the world do not have an opportunity to choose who should be in power, so if you have that chance then use it wisely.

  1. Dirishani said...:

    You are right, voting is a right that everyone should exercise. Disappointments mostly from politicians discourage people from voting.

  1. margie said...:

    I hope everyone realizes that their voting card is a very powerful weapon.Its the only way that we can initiate the change we need in our country.

  1. Samuel said...:

    wow this is totally insightful. Do keep it coming

  1. this post is very interesting and easy to read, I hope to visit again

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