A majority of people support the new electoral system with each voter casting two ballots -- one for the party-list candidates and the other for a candidate running in a constituency, according to the result of a survey by National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted by telephone interviews with 1,318 respondents aged 18 and over of various levels of education and occupations throughout the country between Nov 8-10 to compile their opinions on the two-ballot voting system under a constitutional amendment passed by parliament in early September and submitted for royal endorsement.
A majority or 74.28% agreed with the new system -- 49.62% strongly and 24.66% in moderate agreement. On the other side, 21.47% did not agree with it, 3.72% were indifferent and 0.53% had no answer or were not interested.
Asked which parties would get an advantage from the two-ballot system, with a respondent allowed to give more than one answer, 39.38% said none of them; 23.75% had no comment or were not interested; 22.00% pointed to the Pheu Thai Party; 18.36% the Palang Pracharath Party; 4.86% the Move Forward Party; 4.86% the Democrat Party; 1.29% the Bhumjaithai Party; and 2.28% other parties.
Asked whether it would be possible for a party to win more than one half or 250 seats in the House of Representatives under this system, 45.67% said this was quite possible; 26.71% very possible; 11.08% had no answer or were not interested; and the remainder said it was unlikely.
Asked how they would vote with the two ballots (one for party-list candidates and the other for a constituency candidate), 46.59% said they would use the two ballots to vote for the same party; 27.84% said they would use them to vote for different parties; 17.83% were still uncertain; 4.02% said they would tick the "no vote" box on both ballots; 2.58% said they would tick the "no vote" box on one ballot; and 1.14% would not go to the poll.