In Bohol Voters’ interest in politics drops?

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Most of the 775,785 registered voters in 1,355 clustered precincts in Bohol province are expected to troop tomorrow (Monday), May 13, to their respective voting precincts in 1,109 barangays of 47 towns and one city in Bohol as the voting time will open at 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

But is the Boholano voters’ interest in politics decreasing? It maybe so, if the results of the Bohol pre-election survey, conducted by the Holy Name University Research Center in this city from April 21 to May 5, would be the basis.

The public presentation of the poll opinion results last Friday (May 10) at HNU showed that about 400 respondents, 100 each from each of the three congressional districts and another 100 from Tagbilaran City, were asked on the “specific party in mind” they would likely to vote for.

Thirty-one percent of the total respondents said they are very much interested in politics. Of this number, the 1st district had 31 percent, the 2nd district had 28 percent, while the 3rd district got 33 percent.

A total of 62 percent of the respondents in the entire province said they have “moderate” interest in politics; 59 percent of them in the 1st district, 66 percent in the 2nd district and 60 percent in the 3rd district. Those with “little interest” in politics was 6 percent for the whole Bohol, 6 percent which in the 1st district, 3 percent in the 2nd district and 7 percent in the 3rd district.

The survey showed that voters’ preferred political party in mind had risen to 23 percent for the 2013 elections in entire province of Bohol, compared to only 14 percent in the 2010 elections, 27 percent in 2007, but lower than the 29 percent in 2004.

Across the three districts, only the 3rd district showed much interest with 32 percent, a figure which is still beyond halfway, the survey said. The lowest of this result came from the 1st district with only 14 percent, as against 21 percent in the 2nd district. On the score of party-list in mind, the increase was however high, with 77 percent of the respondents saying they have enough knowledge of the party-list system.

Meanwhile, Comelec-Bohol said that about 80 percent of the voting population is expected to cast their votes tomorrow, based on the total turnout in the 2010 presidential elections. Provincial election supervisor Leonil Marco Castillano, in a phone interview yesterday, said that candidates for were making their final campaign sorties, as of midnight Saturday, focusing on the still undecided voters.

On the PCOS machines, Castillano said these were tested to be functioning well, except for 11 in some towns, although he did not disclose the names. He only said the malfunctioning machines were already replaced with back-ups or contingency units.

PCOS machines and official ballots that arrived here last week of April were ready to be installed in every clustered precinct early morning tomorrow, Castillano, who inspected every town in Bohol over the past days until yesterday. (FREEMAN)