PERSONALITY AND GENDER AS PREDICTORS OF VOTING BEHAVIOUR AMONG THE ELECTORATE IN AWKA, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examines the voting behaviour of electorates in Awka: an inferential study of gender and personality. The participants comprised of 263 eligible voters; who are 116 males and 147 females, selected randomly from the population of the people living in Awka. The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 57 years with the mean age of 33.50 years and with the standard deviation of 3.42. The participants were selected through simple random sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection was 10- items voting behaviour scale by Olaniyi (2004), and the Big Five Questionnaire by John (1990). Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data gathered from the field work. The result confirmed that females had positive behaviour more than the males which indicates that gender influences voting behaviour at significant level of r (I, 263) = .037*, P< .05. Also, significant influence of personality on voting behaviour was confirmed at r (1, 263) = .021* P < .05, with the significant joint influence of the two predictors on voting behaviour. Consequently, the hypotheses were accepted. It is therefore recommended that civil organization and NGOs who are concerned with increasing the knowledge of the people through sensitization programmes should make use of the implication of this study outcome, to promote more voters’ education in order to ensure enduring credible elections in Nigeria.