Most of the people have a little or no understanding of the new electoral system set down in the draft charter being scrutinised by the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), according to an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida).
The pollsters surveyed 1,250 radomly selected people aged 18 and over of various occupations and levels of education throughout the country on May 7-8, to gauge their knowledge of the new electoral system under the draft charter, Nida Poll said.
Asked about their understanding of the proposed mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral system, in which MPs would be elected from constituencies and party lists (Sections 103-107), only 9.60% of the respondents said they understood it very well and 30.08% said they had some understanding of it.
On the contrary, 35.44% of the respondents said they understood it a little, 23.92% said they did not understand it at all, while 0.96% said they were not interested.
Asked what they think about the election of MPs in the open list system, from which they can specify which candidate on the party list they want to vote for (Section 105), 40.32% of the respondents agreed with it; 15.04% disagreed, saying it was too complicated; 40.24% were not certain about it; and 4.40% were not interested.
On the draft charter's provision allowing political groups to field their candidates both in constituencies and on the party lists (Section 112), a majority, 61.20%, agreed with it, 17.84% disagreed, and 20.96% were not interested.
Asked about Section 111 (15), which prohibits people removed from their positions or banned from political office from stand for election to parliament, a majority, 60.80%, agreed, 30.72% disagreed, 3.36% were uncertain, and 5.12% not interested.
The pollster said the survey had a maxumum error value of +/- 1.4.