Community-level economic development is the most urgent issue for new provincial administration organisations (PAOs) to tackle following the elections of PAO chairmen and council members on Dec 20, according to an opinion poll conducted by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll.
The survey was conducted online on 1,059 eligible voters throughout the country from Nov 5-12 to compile their opinions on the first PAO elections in six years.
A huge majority of the respondents -- 74.23% -- said the elections would affect their lives, with 38.81% saying they were very important to them and 35.32% rating them moderately important. Another 20.50% said they paid little attention to them, while 5.28% completely ignored them.
Most of the respondents -- 77.05% -- thought PAO elections are stepping stones for candidates to enter national politics, while 22.95% did not think so.
Asked whether they were more interested in national or local politics, 54.20% said both are equally interesting; 21.62% said national-level politics is more interesting; 15.20% found local-level politics more interesting; and 8.98% said neither interest them.
Asked to name the three most urgent issues they want new PAOs to tackle, with the respondents allowed to give more than one answer, community-level economic development came first at 73.28%. Next was eradication of drugs and other vice at 67.75%, followed by promotion of occupations and employment with 64.12%.
Asked whether they believed the forthcoming PAO elections would be clean and fair, a majority -- 54.01% -- said "no", with 39.75% saying they would definitely not be, while 14.26% were doutbful. The rest, 45.99%, said "yes", with 31.54% saying they were quite certain and 14.45% fairly confident.