Citizens on participation in elections

The Czech population holds somewhat ambivalent opinions on elections and participation in them. Those polled almost universally agree that participation in elections is a personal matter (91%) and that the possibility to vote is a right that must be exercised (84%). Slightly less consensus exists as to the statements that voting is not a duty but is necessary for society (75%), and that participation in elections is a civic duty (71%). 59% of respondents are persuaded that elections enable them to participate in the administration of public affairs, but at the same time over a half of respondents expressed their critical stand on elections by agreeing with the statement that elections are pointless because politicians ‘will do whatever they please’ (55%) and that election results do not matter because ‘nothing will change for ordinary people’ (52%). 43% of those polled identified with the opinion that their vote will make no change whatsoever. As expected, the group of respondents saying that participation in elections is useless was by far the smallest one (18%).