Nigerians
have 143 days and 17 hours to make up their minds on whether they will be at
various polling units in 2019 to elect a new President or not. In this piece, Infoprations asks Google about Nigerians’
voting intention in the previous elections and their willingness to do same
during 2019 Presidential Election.
According
to Google, Nigerians sought knowledge on vote
and voting in 2010 and 2014 ahead
of the 2011 and 2015 general elections. The trends of searching for the vote and voting were fused to form Nigerian’s Voting Intention Index by the Infoprations to understand the degree to
which searching for information on the elements encourage them to participate
in the actual voting.
Analysis
shows that Nigerians’ searches in 2010, a year before general elections, on the
elements predicted 53% voters’ turnout for 2011 general election. Infoprations’ check reveals that the
Google’s understanding of Nigerians’ willingness to vote during the election
closed to the actual voters (53.68% turnout rate) who voted for their preferred
candidates. For 2015 general elections, analysis establishes that the Google
searches on vote and voting predicted 46.09% turnout rate for
the election while the actual turnout rate was 43.65%.
In
2010, knowledge was sought mostly on vote
and voting from Lagos State. Ogun,
Enugu, Edo, Kaduna, Kano, Cross River, Delta, Rivers, Oyo, Lagos and Federal
Capital Territory, Abuja were the places where Nigerians searched specific
information on their readiness to participate in 2015 general elections in
2014. Further analysis suggests that the trends of searching information on vote and voting connected with turnout rates in the states where the
searches were done mostly by 42.7%.
Google
equally informs Infoprations that
Nigerians in Ekiti, Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Osun, Plateau, Ondo, Rivers,
Oyo, Cross River, Enugu, Anambra, Kwara, Nasarawa, Edo, Benue, Ogun, Kaduna,
Delta, Abia, Lagos, Kano States and Abuja have sought knowledge on vote and voting from January 7 to September 16, 2018 ahead of 2019’s general
elections.
The
present trends indicate that political parties and candidates should expect
significant voters’ turnout in the States where Nigerians have sought knowledge
on vote and voting. The trends also signify that the Independent National Electoral
Commission and other concerned stakeholders in the electoral process towards
2019’s general elections need to create awareness on the essence of voting in
others States, where interest in understanding vote and voting through
the Internet is not prioritised by the educated voters (who have access to the
Internet).
Comments
Post a Comment