84%
of voters are not influenced by surveys--SWS
Only
16 out of every 100 Filipino voters said election survey news
affect the way they vote, according to a pre-election survey by
the Social Weather Stations.
The
survey also found that three out of every 100 registered voters
could be called "bandwagonners"--or those who would
switch to "stronger candidates"--while five out of every
100 could be called "underdoggers," defined as those
who would favor "weaker candidates."
"Thus
the votes of 84 percent were not affected by election surveys
at all," SWS said in a statement released Thursday.
Asked
if they had read or heard of any news on surveys about who would
most likely win the senatorial race, 48 percent said they were
aware of election survey news, while 52 percent said they were
not.
Those
who were aware of election survey news were asked whether they
would change their votes "to a candidate strong in surveys
from one weak in surveys" and whether they would change their
votes "to a candidate weak in surveys from one strong in
surveys."
About
two-thirds of those who were aware, or 32 percent of the total
respondents, said "no" to both questions.
Across
areas, awareness of election survey news was highest in Metro
Manila (58 percent). It was 52 percent in the Visayas, 51 percent
in the balance of Luzon and only 35 percent in Mindanao.
Meanwhile,
the percentage of those who said that election survey news would
have no effect on their votes was also highest in Metro Manila
(43 percent). It was 37 percent in the rest of Luzon, 32 percent
in Visayas and 19 percent in Mindanao.
Across
socio-economic classes, awareness of election survey news was
highest among members of upper to middle classes ABC (77 percent)
and lowest among members of poorest class E (39 percent). Nearly
half of class D (49 percent) was aware of such news.
Fifty-five
percent in class ABC, 33 percent in class D and 26 percent in
class E also said that the election survey news had no effect
on their votes.
The
survey was conducted from May 2 to 4 using face-to-face interviews
with 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro
Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It had a margin
of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.
Posted by : Kate Pedroso,
Inquirer Research, in Manila
May. 24, 2007 21:38:00
