What type of voter...

Unfortunately, a normal Sri Lankan is weak in evaluating choices, particularly the political ones. When two-thirds of Sri Lankan voters know only little about politics, it’s the smart politician who always wins. When faced with an important decision like picking a President, the average citizen often struggles to see through the blizzard of conflicting information. That’s where the mental shortcut will come in. He will select the candidate on the basis of political colour, familiarity or “what’s in it for me.”

DIFFERENT TYPES

We have different types of voters in Sri Lanka. Generally, we call them “bloc voters” and “floating voters.” A block vote is a large number of votes that are all cast in the same way. Floating voters collectively are those not permanently attached to any political party.

However, political analysts in USA have identified 11 types of voters. With 55 years of my experience in voting, I have detected six types of voters in Sri Lanka.

(1) The Informed Voter

He definitely knows his political stuff and actively seeks as much information as possible about all candidates. Then he considers the positives and negatives and evaluates them carefully. He watches TV news and political discussions, reads newspapers and magazines and listens without commitment to the views of neighbours and officemates. His strategy is likely to lead to a vote across party lines. (2) The Rigid Voter

He does not watch TV or read the news or listen to politicians speak or read about election promises. He has taken a rice and curry meal for dinner every single day for the past 20 years. He is not interested in his Doctor’s advice to swap to chicken or fish sandwich and salad with milk. The meal of rice and curry is just fine for him, and so is his unchanging dedication to his political party. Party identification is his primary driver. He is not bothered about the performance and integrity of the candidate selected by his party. (3) The Frugal Voter (also called singleissue voter)

He learns the candidate’s viewpoint only on topics he really cares about, ignoring all else. For example, if a candidate is extremely nationalistic, the frugal voter loves him. He knows they are emotional issues and not policy choices but he thinks they matter to him.

(4) The Swinging Voter

He is a person who never watches a television programme all the way through because he keeps on changing channels to find out whether there is a better programme elsewhere. He has at least four different hairstyles every month. He has tried being vegan, paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free and pescatarian during past six months. On election day, he does not make his final decision until he is standing at the cardboard booth, pencil in hand.

(5) The Low Informed Voter

He may vote, yet he is poorly informed about issues. He generally votes for a candidate who he finds personally appealing. For example, he may prefer candidate X for wearing national costume and be friendly with the villagers but dislike Y and Z as elitist for wearing tie and coat and cannot speak the mother tongue fluently.

(6) The Donkey Voter

He dislikes all political parties equally. He says anarchy would be better or we need a dictator to develop the country. He might cast his ballot to any of the candidates, usually the first one in the list because he doesn’t care who wins. He probably doesn’t even know who’s running, and he just wants to get out of the voting booth and down to the club for a cold beer,

VOTER BEHAVIOUR

Now, let’s take a look at voter behaviour during the forthcoming presidential election. The study of voter behaviour is an examination of why people vote the way they do.

Nearly one-thirds of Sri Lankan voters closely follow political issues. They are not affiliated to any party. I call them Informed voters. Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka terms them as “floating voters” and estimates the total to be around five million. They can be the deciding factor that could tilt the scales. They will not be swayed by rhetoric or promises made on the election platform, but evaluate the merits of the candidates from his/her own perspective.

There is another important segment of voters. Rigid voters or bloc votes. Their impressions regarding particular candidates and political parties are deep-rooted. Most voters already know how they will vote, even in the early stages of a campaign. It is rare for campaigns to change the minds of voters.

However, studies show that most of other types of voters (listed above) do not

When faced with an important decision like picking a President, the average citizen often struggles to see through the blizzard of conflicting information. That’s where the mental shortcut will come in. He will select the candidate on the basis of political colour, familiarity or “what’s in it for me”

follow political happenings. They make their political decisions, and voting decisions, based on factors other than the political issues. A wellplanned election campaign can successfully sway enough voters from these four types to influence the predicted outcome of an election. Each group should be handled in carefully planned different approaches.

Such approaches should take into account that a voter’s background has the largest influence on his decision. Voter background means the voter’s social identity, such as economic class, ethnicity, gender, race and religious preference. Intelligent candidates will purposely gear appropriate campaign messages to each particular segment of voters, using the right themes.

In the last Parliamentary Election in India, Narendra Modi used this technique very successfully.

Such approaches should take into account that a voter’s background has the largest influence on his decision. Voter background means the voter’s social identity, such as economic class, ethnicity, gender, race and religious preference