Influence of Voter Education on Electoral Turnout in Mityana District, Uganda

Abstract

The study examined influence of Voter Education on Turnout considering a case of Mityana District. The IV of the study was Voter Education measured in terms of Voter Training, Voter Awareness Campaigns and Voter Outreaches while as the dependent variable was Electoral Turnout measured in terms of Timeliness to vote, Demographic characteristic of voters, Representativeness of voters and Total number of voters participating in an electoral process. The target population was 311,131 respondents and a sample size of 118 respondents was selected using SRS and purposive sampling as the sampling techniques. Data was collected using Questionnaires, KII and Documentary Review. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected, quantitative data was analyzed using Descriptive statistics, Regression, Pearson’s correlations and ANOVA while as qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The response rate was 85.6%, the study established a strong positive relationship between Voter Training and Electoral Turnout with a correlation of 0.702, the R2 was 49.2% and P-value of 0.000. The study as well established a very strong positive relationship between Voter Awareness Campaigns and Electoral Turnout with a Pearson’s correlation of 0.902, the R2 was 81.3% and the P-value was 0.000 and finally the study as well established a moderate positive relationship between Voter Outreaches and Electoral Turnout with a Pearson’s correlation of 0.636, the R2 was 40.5% and the p-value was 0.000. The study concluded that there is a positive relationship between Voter Training, Voter Awareness Campaigns, Voter Outreaches and Electoral Turnout. The study therefore recommended that electoral commission should put more emphasis on improving Voter Awareness Campaigns, Voter Training and Voter Outreaches as measures to improve Electoral Turnout.