Election pulse survey: Where the parties stand

Indecision among voters regarding casting their ballot in the upcoming national parliamentary elections has increased, the second phase of results from the survey titled “People’s Election Pulse Survey” reveals.

The findings were unveiled at the National Archives Auditorium in the capital today, Wednesday.

The survey was conducted by the consultancy firm Innovision Consulting, with support from the citizen platform Voice for Reform and BRAIN.

The results were presented by Rubaiyath Sarwar, managing director of Innovision Consulting.

The event disclosed that between 2 and 15 September this year, a total of 10,413 voters of varying ages across the country were surveyed.

In a previous survey conducted by the same firm in March, 62 per cent of respondents had answered “yes” when asked if they intended to vote. By September, this figure had declined to 57.8 per cent.

Among the 4,721 respondents who disclosed their preferred party in relation to voting, 41.3 per cent expressed support for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Jamaat-e-Islami was favoured by 30.3 per cent of respondents, while 4.1 per cent preferred the National Citizen Party (NCP).

In contrast, 18.8 per cent of respondents indicated that their preferred party was the Awami League, which is currently barred from political activity.

Compared to March this year, the number of people who intended to vote in favour of the Awami League rose by nearly five percentage points in September.

The survey also revealed that 45.79 per cent of respondents believed that the Awami League should be allowed to participate in the elections.

They argued that all political parties should be given the opportunity to contest.

Conversely, 45.58 per cent felt that the Awami League should not be permitted to participate until trials against it were concluded.

According to the survey, if the Awami League is not allowed to contest, the principal beneficiaries would be the BNP and Jamaat.

In such a scenario, 45.6 per cent of respondents said they would vote for the BNP, while 33.5 per cent would vote for Jamaat. Meanwhile, 8.3 per cent stated they would abstain from voting altogether.