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Attitude of Voters Towards Elections in Morogoro Municipality: A Reflection on 2015 General Election in Tanzania

Received: 30 September 2017     Accepted: 3 November 2017     Published: 22 December 2017
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Abstract

This paper examines the attitudes of voters towards elections in Tanzania following an observed trend of having a great proportion of registered voters who did not vote in the General Elections in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 respectively. The study out of which this paper is based on aimed at assessing the voters’ attitudes towards election and their perception on the importance of participating in election in Morogoro municipality, an electoral constituent which recorded voters turn out of 34.6% below the national turnout of 42.8% in 2010 General Election. A cross- sectional study design and multistage sampling techniques were employed; data were collected using a questionnaire through Computer Aided Personal Interviewing [CAPI] platform from proportionate number of male and female respondents from four randomly selected wards from Morogoro urban in Morogoro region. A total of 14 Likert scale statements were used to assess the attitudes of voters towards elections. Cross tabulation was employed to associate attitudes with other variables. Statistical Package for Social Sciences [SPSS] computer software was used for data processing and analysis. The findings reveal that the minimum and maximum Total Attitudinal Scores were 39.0 and 56.0 respectively with mean at 44.2 and Std. Deviation of 4.01. The study findings show that the overall respondents’ attitude towards elections was negative, with 60% of the respondents scoring less than 44.2 points out of 70, whereas 40% had positive attitude whereby they scored 44.2 points and above. The results show that 73% of the respondents perceived participating in election was important. It is recommended that initiatives should be taken to cultivate positive attitudes of citizens to motivate them to turn out to vote.

Published in Journal of Public Policy and Administration (Volume 1, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.jppa.20170102.12
Page(s) 56-64
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Voters Attitudes, Tanzania 2015 General Election, Sociological Approach, Party Identification Model, Rational Choice Approach, Morogoro-Tanzania

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Mikidadi Muhanga. (2017). Attitude of Voters Towards Elections in Morogoro Municipality: A Reflection on 2015 General Election in Tanzania. Journal of Public Policy and Administration, 1(2), 56-64. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jppa.20170102.12

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    Mikidadi Muhanga. Attitude of Voters Towards Elections in Morogoro Municipality: A Reflection on 2015 General Election in Tanzania. J. Public Policy Adm. 2017, 1(2), 56-64. doi: 10.11648/j.jppa.20170102.12

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    AMA Style

    Mikidadi Muhanga. Attitude of Voters Towards Elections in Morogoro Municipality: A Reflection on 2015 General Election in Tanzania. J Public Policy Adm. 2017;1(2):56-64. doi: 10.11648/j.jppa.20170102.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jppa.20170102.12,
      author = {Mikidadi Muhanga},
      title = {Attitude of Voters Towards Elections in Morogoro Municipality: A Reflection on 2015 General Election in Tanzania},
      journal = {Journal of Public Policy and Administration},
      volume = {1},
      number = {2},
      pages = {56-64},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jppa.20170102.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jppa.20170102.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jppa.20170102.12},
      abstract = {This paper examines the attitudes of voters towards elections in Tanzania following an observed trend of having a great proportion of registered voters who did not vote in the General Elections in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 respectively. The study out of which this paper is based on aimed at assessing the voters’ attitudes towards election and their perception on the importance of participating in election in Morogoro municipality, an electoral constituent which recorded voters turn out of 34.6% below the national turnout of 42.8% in 2010 General Election. A cross- sectional study design and multistage sampling techniques were employed; data were collected using a questionnaire through Computer Aided Personal Interviewing [CAPI] platform from proportionate number of male and female respondents from four randomly selected wards from Morogoro urban in Morogoro region. A total of 14 Likert scale statements were used to assess the attitudes of voters towards elections. Cross tabulation was employed to associate attitudes with other variables. Statistical Package for Social Sciences [SPSS] computer software was used for data processing and analysis. The findings reveal that the minimum and maximum Total Attitudinal Scores were 39.0 and 56.0 respectively with mean at 44.2 and Std. Deviation of 4.01. The study findings show that the overall respondents’ attitude towards elections was negative, with 60% of the respondents scoring less than 44.2 points out of 70, whereas 40% had positive attitude whereby they scored 44.2 points and above. The results show that 73% of the respondents perceived participating in election was important. It is recommended that initiatives should be taken to cultivate positive attitudes of citizens to motivate them to turn out to vote.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    AU  - Mikidadi Muhanga
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    AB  - This paper examines the attitudes of voters towards elections in Tanzania following an observed trend of having a great proportion of registered voters who did not vote in the General Elections in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 respectively. The study out of which this paper is based on aimed at assessing the voters’ attitudes towards election and their perception on the importance of participating in election in Morogoro municipality, an electoral constituent which recorded voters turn out of 34.6% below the national turnout of 42.8% in 2010 General Election. A cross- sectional study design and multistage sampling techniques were employed; data were collected using a questionnaire through Computer Aided Personal Interviewing [CAPI] platform from proportionate number of male and female respondents from four randomly selected wards from Morogoro urban in Morogoro region. A total of 14 Likert scale statements were used to assess the attitudes of voters towards elections. Cross tabulation was employed to associate attitudes with other variables. Statistical Package for Social Sciences [SPSS] computer software was used for data processing and analysis. The findings reveal that the minimum and maximum Total Attitudinal Scores were 39.0 and 56.0 respectively with mean at 44.2 and Std. Deviation of 4.01. The study findings show that the overall respondents’ attitude towards elections was negative, with 60% of the respondents scoring less than 44.2 points out of 70, whereas 40% had positive attitude whereby they scored 44.2 points and above. The results show that 73% of the respondents perceived participating in election was important. It is recommended that initiatives should be taken to cultivate positive attitudes of citizens to motivate them to turn out to vote.
    VL  - 1
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Development Studies, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania

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