WHAT SHAPES VOTING PREFERENCES IN UPPER DIR, PAKISTAN; RELIGION OR ISSUES? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF 2013 AND 2018 GENERAL ELECTIONS
Keywords:
Issue-based voting, Voting Behavior, Religion, Political Factors, PakistanAbstract
Voting behavior has been a subject of intense academic discourse and is shaped by multiple political, religious, and social factors. In this context, based on Issue Voting model and emphasizing Issue voting as a significant determinant of voting behavior in a multi-party parliamentary political system, like Pakistan, this study aims to explore the changing pattern of Voting Behavior by comparing the general elections of 2013 and 2018 in Pakistan. It argues that the significance of issue-based politics has increased at the cost of religion and other social determinants of voting in the Pakhtun region of Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This is not to say that religion and socio-cultural factors have lost significance at all but is to contend that the politics of voting is changing in the region, long argued to be driven by religion and socio-cultural factors. The study is methodologically quantitative in nature. The quantitative data is collected from 380 respondents from Upper Dir, Pakistan through a dichotomous scale questionnaire under random sampling technique while using univariate and bivariate analyses for the analysis of data.
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