As the election draws closer, campaigns emerge to convince people to vote based on policies rather than public image.
The General election in the UK is only three days away, set to take place on Thursday 12 December. As the public prepare to vote in the upcoming election, most members of the electorate have already decided which party will be receiving their vote on Thursday.
An online survey found that 75 percent of voters knew who they were going to vote for, while 25 percent were still uncertain.
A quarter of voters are undecided, meaning that there is still time for the electorate to be influenced by politicians during the election campaign trails.
It was also found that a large amount of voters across the UK have not read any party manifestos of any of the parties. 31 percent of people admitted that they had not looked at any of the manifestos from any of the parties and 23 percent of people claimed to have read some, but not all of the party manifestos.
70 percent of people also agreed that the public image of politicians was an important factor that influenced the way they vote in the general election.
These results show that voters have an increased reliance on public personality of politicians rather than policies of the parties.
A Solution?
A non-profit organisation called Vote for Policies have released a quiz that highlights the importance of voting for a party based on policies and not public reputation.
Vote for policies state: “Our mission is to increase participation in elections, so we want to give everyone the opportunity to make an informed, unbiased decision about who to vote for.”
Just confirming…. The 2019 survey is now live!!https://t.co/PExQJtzIOO
Go compare! ?— Vote for Policies (@voteforpolicies) December 3, 2019
The quiz takes the policies laid out in each party manifesto and condenses them into a shortened format. This format divides the manifestos into a number of categories and highlights the promises and priorities of each party.
The manifesto promises are broken down into various categories so that voters can pick and chose which issues are the most important to them.
Categories include: Democracy, Environment, Health/NHS, Education, Foreign Policy/Defence and Brexit. With an option to pick 15 different issues discussed in each manifesto.
The online quiz has gained traction very quickly since its release less than a week ago. It has been spread around various forms of social media and has reached a large audience of UK voters.
The quiz breaks down party policies and presents them with a infographic pie chart that should help them understand their ideologies and inform them which party most represents their political beliefs.
A survey found that 84 percent of people would be interested in taking a quiz that would align their political beliefs with a party that most represented their ideas.
