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1 Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections May 2016: What Voters want and how they rate Government Performance A survey of over 16,000 respondents was done in every constituency of Tamil Nadu ending in February 2016. This is the largest survey done so far in the State. The purpose of the survey is to find out what voters really want from the Government and how they rate the performance on the issues that are important to them. In later Press releases we will send constituency wise information. The survey was done by the Association for Democratic reforms (ADR), a non-political organization that works all over India to help improve elections and democracy. Rural Voter Priorities Rural voters still form the bulk of people in the State. When asked for their top three priorities, they said that Agriculture Loans, Employment and Electricity for agriculture were the top priorities. The Table below gives the percentage of people who said that the issue was one of the top three priorities for them. So 24.75% of voters said that Agriculture Loan Availability was one of the top three priorities for them, 22.88% of voters said that for Better Employment Opportunities, and 20.72% for electricity for agriculture. Clearly they show that issues of agriculture and employment are the top priorities for them. About 68% of voters gave one of these three as their top priority. Rural Priorities Issue % voters Agriculture loan availability 24.75% Better employment opportunities 22.88% Electricity for agriculture 20.72% Better roads 18.49% Water river lake pollution 17.42% Availability of water for agriculture 16.84% Better public transport 16.68% Agriculture subsidy for seeds & fertilisers 16.40% Better hospital/Primary health care centres 15.92% Roads and transport, polluted water sources, water for agriculture, agriculture inputs like seeds and fertilizers, along with Health facilities were the top priorities. It is also interesting to note what issues were not priorities for them. For instance reservation for jobs, education, terrorism, strong military, corruption, law and order were not top priorities. Rural Performance Rating of Government Among the worst rated performance was on Agriculture Loan Availability and Better Employment Opportunities. These unfortunately are among the top 3 priorities for the people. The other issue in the top three priorities, namely Electricity for Agriculture also did poorly according to voters. There were a total of 31 issues for which they gave priorities and then rated Government’s performance. Thus for the top three priorities, Agriculture Loan Availability performance was ranked 27 th out of 31,

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Page 1: Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections May 2016: What Voters want ... Release TN Survey.pdf · Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections May 2016: What Voters want and how they rate Government Performance

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Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections May 2016:

What Voters want and how they rate Government Performance

A survey of over 16,000 respondents was done in every constituency of Tamil Nadu ending in

February 2016. This is the largest survey done so far in the State. The purpose of the survey is to find

out what voters really want from the Government and how they rate the performance on the issues

that are important to them. In later Press releases we will send constituency wise information. The

survey was done by the Association for Democratic reforms (ADR), a non-political organization that

works all over India to help improve elections and democracy.

Rural Voter Priorities

Rural voters still form the bulk of people in the State. When asked for their top three priorities, they

said that Agriculture Loans, Employment and Electricity for agriculture were the top priorities. The

Table below gives the percentage of people who said that the issue was one of the top three priorities

for them. So 24.75% of voters said that Agriculture Loan Availability was one of the top three

priorities for them, 22.88% of voters said that for Better Employment Opportunities, and 20.72% for

electricity for agriculture. Clearly they show that issues of agriculture and employment are the top

priorities for them. About 68% of voters gave one of these three as their top priority.

Rural Priorities

Issue % voters

Agriculture loan availability 24.75%

Better employment opportunities 22.88%

Electricity for agriculture 20.72%

Better roads 18.49%

Water river lake pollution 17.42%

Availability of water for agriculture 16.84%

Better public transport 16.68%

Agriculture subsidy for seeds & fertilisers 16.40%

Better hospital/Primary health care centres 15.92%

Roads and transport, polluted water sources, water for agriculture, agriculture inputs like seeds and

fertilizers, along with Health facilities were the top priorities.

It is also interesting to note what issues were not priorities for them. For instance reservation for jobs,

education, terrorism, strong military, corruption, law and order were not top priorities.

Rural Performance Rating of Government

Among the worst rated performance was on Agriculture Loan Availability and Better Employment

Opportunities. These unfortunately are among the top 3 priorities for the people. The other issue in

the top three priorities, namely Electricity for Agriculture also did poorly according to voters. There

were a total of 31 issues for which they gave priorities and then rated Government’s performance.

Thus for the top three priorities, Agriculture Loan Availability performance was ranked 27th out of 31,

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Better Employment Opportunities 26th, and Electricity for Agriculture 20th. So high priority issues for

voters had very bad performance.

Voters were also asked to pick just 2 issues on which they rated the Government as Good, another two

issues on which they rated the Government as Average and another 2 on which they rated the

Government as Bad. The Table below shows the percent of voters who first chose each issue and then

rated it. So Agriculture Loan Availability was chosen by 22.79% of voters as one of the two issues on

which they wanted to rate the Government. The Table also shows how the Government’s performance

on the Top Priorities was rated. The maximum possible score was 5, and the actual scores ranged

from 2.56 to 3.14 for the top priorities.

Rural Performance on Top Priorities

Score

Rank out

of 31 items % age Voters

Agriculture loan availability 2.56 27 22.79%

Better employment opportunities 2.61 26 21.17%

Water river lake pollution 2.73 22 17.06%

Electricity for agriculture 2.85 20 16.58%

Better public transport 2.77 21 13.51%

Better roads 2.72 23 12.45%

Better hospital/Primary health care centres 3.08 12 18.84%

Availability of water for agriculture 3.10 10 14.61%

Sand and stone quarrying/mining 3.14 9 14.41%

Agriculture subsidy for seeds & fertilisers 2.89 19 12.48%

There were some priority issues where the Government performance was relatively good. These were

Hospitals and PHCs, Water for Agriculture and Sand Stone quarrying and mining. The last may be an

environmental hazard but people may have supported it due to the employment generated.

The voters rated Government performance high on issues that were not important to them. These

included Terrorism and Strong Military. However only 2.65% and 1.16% rated these issues as

Important.

Urban Voter Priorities

Urban Voters had different priorities. Employment was the highest priority for them, whereas for rural

voters it was the number 2 priority. Urban voters also said Noise Pollution and the Drinking Water

were the other two priorities. In the next category were Health Care, Roads and Traffic Congestion.

Every voter in Tamil Nadu named one of these 6 issues below as important.

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Urban Priorities

Issue % voters

Better employment opportunities 23.59%

Noise pollution 21.82%

Drinking water 20.69%

Better hospital/Primary health care centres 18.89%

Better roads 17.58%

Traffic congestion 17.34%

These were followed closely by water and air pollution, public transport, law and order and electricity

for domestic use.

Urban Performance Rating of Government

The top urban priorities of Employment, Noise Pollution and Drinking Water were ranked 19th, 31st

and 23rd out of 31 issues in terms of performance. Thus Noise Pollution, one of the top priorities for

voters had the worst performance.

For the next level of priorities, Traffic Congestion was ranked 30th in terms of performance, Health

Care was ranked 18th and Roads at 24th. Once again the top priorities for voters had the worst

performance as for rural voters.

Row Labels Score

Rank out

of 31 items % of voters

Better employment opportunities 2.99 19 14.94%

Traffic congestion 1.94 30 7.17%

Noise pollution 1.83 31 5.68%

Better hospital/Primary health care centres 3.03 18 12.90%

Better roads 2.81 24 9.29%

Water and Air pollution 2.23 28 4.97%

Better public transport 3.09 13 9.60%

Drinking water 2.83 23 6.41%

The best performance was on Terrorism, Strong Military and Ration on the PDS system. However the

percent of respondents who chose these issues was low at 5.5%, 4% and 3.24%.

Conclusions

If voters expect good performance from the Government, they are likely to be disappointed. In

democracy as played out today, one party has to merely defeat the other party, not necessarily deliver

good governance. To win they seem to resort to freebies for voters rather than deliver good

governance. The full list of priorities and performance for Rural and Urban Voters is given in the

Appendices.

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Appendix 1: Rural Priorities

Rural Priorities

Issue % Voters

1 Agriculture loan availability 24.75%

2 Better employment opportunities 22.88%

3 Electricity for agriculture 20.72%

4 Better roads 18.49%

5 Water river take pollution 17.42%

6 Availability of water for agriculture 16.84%

7 Better public transport 16.68%

8 Agriculture subsidy for seeds & fertilisers 16.40%

9 Better hospital/Primary health care centres 15.92%

10 Sand and stone quarrying/mining 12.67%

11 Higher price realization for farm products 12.36%

12 Drinking water 11.62%

13 Better law and order/Policing 10.80%

14 Encroachment of public land lakes etc. 9.56%

15 School education 8.89%

16 Eradication of corruption 8.65%

17 Empowerment of women and security 8.13%

18 Subsidised food distribution/ration 8.00%

19 Electricity for domestic use 7.95%

20 Lower food prices for consumers 7.12%

21 Reservation for jobs and education 5.58%

22 Better garbage clearance 4.88%

23 Training for jobs 4.28%

24 others (Specify) 3.52%

25 Terrorism 2.65%

26 Strong Defence/Military 1.16%

27 Traffic congestion 0.63%

28 Water and Air pollution 0.55%

29 Mining/Quarrying 0.44%

30 Facility for cyclists and pedestrians on roads 0.40%

31 Noise pollution 0.38%

Some of the Issues are clearly urban and as can be seen the number of respondents is very low.

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Appendix 2: Rural Performance

S No Issue Score

Rank out

of 31 items % of Voters

1 Agriculture loan availability 2.56 27 22.79%

2 Better employment opportunities 2.61 26 21.17%

3 Water river lake pollution 2.73 22 17.06%

4 Electricity for agriculture 2.85 20 16.58%

5 Better public transport 2.77 21 13.51%

6 Better roads 2.72 23 12.45%

7 Better hospital/Primary health care centres 3.08 12 18.84%

8 Availability of water for agriculture 3.10 10 14.61%

9 Sand and stone quarrying/mining 3.14 9 14.41%

10 Agriculture subsidy for seeds & fertilisers 2.89 19 12.48%

11 Higher price realization for farm products 3.04 13 13.60%

12 Better law and order/Policing 3.00 16 13.77%

13 Drinking water 2.99 17 10.60%

14 Eradication of corruption 3.02 15 7.26%

15 School education 3.19 7 7.71%

16 Encroachment of public land lakes etc. 2.66 24 4.93%

17 Lower food prices for consumers 3.03 14 5.78%

18 Electricity for domestic use 3.56 4 10.24%

19 Better garbage clearance 2.98 18 5.10%

20 Empowerment of women and security 3.28 5 8.47%

21 Training for jobs 3.20 6 5.32%

22 Subsidised food distribution/ration 3.08 11 5.48%

23 Reservation for jobs and education 3.16 8 6.44%

24 Terrorism 4.43 1 9.80%

25 others (Specify) 4.30 3 6.28%

26 Strong Defence/Military 4.33 2 6.41%

27 Noise pollution 1.79 31 0.72%

28 Water and Air pollution 2.09 30 0.68%

29 Traffic congestion 2.17 28 0.67%

30 Mining/Quarrying 2.10 29 0.34%

31 Facility for cyclists and pedestrians on roads 2.64 25 0.22%

Voters choose 2 items and rank them as Good Performance, 2 others for Average Performance, and 2

more for Bad Performance. Table shows that High Priority issues like Agriculture Loan Availability,

Employment etc. were chosen by a high percent of voters for rating performance. However the

performance was low on a scale of 1 to 5, and out of the 31 issues relative performance was also very

low.

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Appendix 3: Urban Priorities

S No Issue

% of

voters

1 Better employment opportunities 23.59%

2 Noise pollution 21.82%

3 Drinking water 20.69%

4 Better hospital/Primary health care centres 18.89%

5 Better roads 17.58%

6 Traffic congestion 17.34%

7 Water and Air pollution 16.07%

8 Better public transport 15.09%

9 Better law and order/Policing 14.33%

10 Electricity for domestic use 14.29%

11 Empowerment of women and security 12.81%

12 School education 12.36%

13 Facility for cyclists and pedestrians on roads 11.55%

14 Lower food prices for consumers 10.66%

15 Mining/Quarrying 10.24%

16 Encroachment of public land lakes etc. 9.90%

17 Eradication of corruption 9.54%

18 Training for jobs 8.04%

19 Better garbage clearance 7.62%

20 Reservation for jobs and education 7.26%

21 Subsidised food distribution/ration 6.87%

22 Terrorism 3.19%

23 Water river take pollution 2.74%

24 Sand and stone quarrying/mining 2.03%

25 Strong Defence/Military 1.46%

26 others (Specify) 1.02%

27 Agriculture loan availability 0.92%

28 Availability of water for agriculture 0.67%

29 Agriculture subsidy for seeds & fertilisers 0.58%

30 Electricity for agriculture 0.46%

31 Higher price realization for farm products 0.41%

Some of the issues are clearly Rural like those related to Agriculture and as can be seen, there are very

few responses for them.

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Appendix 4: Urban Performance

S

No Issue Score

Rank out of

31 items % of Voters

1 Better employment opportunities 2.99 19 14.94%

2 Traffic congestion 1.94 30 7.17%

3 Noise pollution 1.83 31 5.68%

4 Better hospital/Primary health care centres 3.03 18 12.90%

5 Better roads 2.81 24 9.29%

6 Water and Air pollution 2.23 28 4.97%

7 Better public transport 3.09 13 9.60%

8 Drinking water 2.83 23 6.41%

9 Electricity for domestic use 3.06 15 6.86%

10 Better law and order/Policing 3.03 17 8.35%

11 Empowerment of women and security 2.99 20 6.36%

12 Mining/Quarrying 2.61 25 3.69%

13 Facility for cyclists and pedestrians on roads 2.11 29 2.51%

14 Eradication of corruption 2.92 22 4.53%

15 Lower food prices for consumers 3.05 16 3.66%

16 Better garbage clearance 3.13 12 3.58%

17 Encroachment of public land lakes etc. 2.94 21 3.78%

18 Training for jobs 3.17 11 2.56%

19 Reservation for jobs and education 3.28 10 4.08%

20 School education 3.46 8 4.16%

21 Subsidised food distribution/ration 3.53 7 3.24%

22 Water river lake pollution 2.37 27 0.74%

23 Terrorism 4.60 3 5.50%

24 others (Specify) 4.60 2 4.11%

25 Strong Defence/Military 4.62 1 4.00%

26 Sand and stone quarrying/mining 2.44 26 0.44%

27 Agriculture loan availability 3.07 14 0.75%

28 Higher price realization for farm products 3.68 6 0.55%

29 Availability of water for agriculture 4.07 5 0.64%

30 Electricity for agriculture 3.31 9 0.79%

31 Agriculture subsidy for seeds & fertilisers 4.16 4 0.52%

Voters choose 2 items and rank them as Good Performance, 2 others for Average Performance, and 2

more for Bad Performance. A High Priority issue like Employment was chosen by a higher percent of

voters for rating performance. However performance was low on a scale of 1 to 5, and out of the 31

issues, relative performance was also very low as for instance Noise Pollution is ranked 30th.

However, compared to Rural Voters, there are no clear set of issues on which voters responded in

large numbers. Again, the top performance scores are for issues that are not top priority for voters.

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Contacts

Tamil Nadu Election Watch

Dr. Sudarsan Padmanabhan

Coordinator +91-94447-82884

[email protected]

Association for Democratic Reforms

Media and Journalist

Helpline

+91 80103 94248

Email: [email protected]

Maj Gen Anil Verma

(Retd.) Head

National Election Watch,

Association for Democratic Reforms

011 4165 4200, +91 88264 79910 [email protected],

[email protected]

Prof Jagdeep Chhokar IIM Ahmedabad (Retd.)

Founder Member, National Election Watch,

Association for Democratic Reforms

+91 99996 20944 [email protected]

Prof Trilochan Sastry IIM Bangalore

Founder Member, National Election Watch,

Association for Democratic Reforms

+91 94483 53285 [email protected]