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Vodafone Survey: Mobile telephones could improve voter participation

23. May 2006

The number of voters at the June parliamentary elections could theoretically increase. 81 % of citizens, who won´t vote in this years election, would change their minds, if it were possible to vote using mobile technology. Almost half of mobile telephone users claim that they would like to be able to call politicians on special lines as well as accessing information about the political parties with their telephones. 85 % of the respondents claimed they would like the opportunity of deciding upon the events in their municipalities by way of an SMS. This information was provided by a representative survey, which was implemented by Vodafone in collaboration with the United Interactive agency in May.

The number of voters at the June parliamentary elections could theoretically increase. 81 % of citizens, who won´t vote in this years election, would change their minds, if it were possible to vote using mobile technology. Almost half of mobile telephone users claim that they would like to be able to call politicians on special lines as well as accessing information about the political parties with their telephones. 85 % of the respondents claimed they would like the opportunity of deciding upon the events in their municipalities by way of an SMS. This information was provided by a representative survey, which was implemented by Vodafone in collaboration with the United Interactive agency in May.

Mobile operator customers were the survey’s target group. The survey was done on a group of 400 respondents of all ages, sexes and mobile operators. The survey focused on three topics:

  1. Utilization of mobile technology in political decision-making
  2. Telecommunication „maturity“ of political bodies
  3. Election preference of mobile telephone users

Main findings:

Mobiles and voters

  • 81 % of those voters who are not planning to take part in the June elections would actually take part if they could vote by way of SMS. 87 % of those using Eurotel, 78 % using T-Mobile and 73 % using Vodafone had this opinion.85% of those asked would welcome the opportunity of voting upon the events in their municipalities by way of SMS. The number of respondents representing each operator is comparable and is considered an interesting opportunity by everyone within the mobile spectrum. 40 % of those asked would welcome the provision of information about political parties and party programs by way of SMS or WAP. 48 % of Eurotel customers expressed interest, while T-Mobile customers (34 %) expressed the least interest in this service. Almost half of those asked (48 %) would welcome the opportunity of utilizing special telephone lines to ask politicians about issues that interest them. This service was mainly welcomed by young or older people whereas those customers in the 30 – 40 year age bracket were less interested. In this respect Vodafone customers (44 %) and Eurotel customers (52 %) expressed the biggest interest.
  • Only 11 % of those asked were interested in having politicians call them. Vodafone customers (3 %) expressed the least interest in this service in comparison to the 16 % of Eurotel customers expressing interest.

Mobiles and politicians

  • 54 % of the respondents claimed that the Communist Party is the biggest deterrent in the development of telecommunications. The number of respondents representing each operator was comparable. There are different opinions in terms of the less significant „deterrents“– Eurotel customers see the problem in the Christian Democratic Party (13 %) and Green Party (10 %) whereas 13 % of Vodafone customers view the Czech Social Democratic Party to be the problem. 61 % of the respondents claimed that Civic Democratic Party was the party most inclined towards development of telecommunications.
  • Respondents selected present-day Ministers of Informatics Vladimír Mlynář (22%) and Dana Bérová (23 %) as being the „the most advanced politicians in the telecommunications field“.

Mobiles and voter preference

  • Although voter preference of mobile telephone users reflects preference in terms of general electoral platforms there are some obvious differences: in comparison to customers using other mobile operators Vodafone customers are more inclined to voting for the Green Party; T-Mobile users are inclined towards the Civic Democratic Party and Eurotel customers are inclined towards the Czech Social Democratic Party.
  • The mobile operators designated Václav Klaus as the „most trustworthy politician“; Eurotel users (33 %) expressed their trust the most.
  • Owner of Nokia telephones selected the most preferred parties (The Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Social Democratic Party, the Green Party) comparably although there were some obvious differences; those selecting the Civic Democratic Party more often owned Alcatel telephones, those selecting the Green Party more often were the owners of SonyErissons and Siemens owners more often selected the Czech Social Democratic Party.