Issue Voting, Terrorism and Corruption: A Case Study of General Elections 2013 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Hassan Shah1

Abstract
Pakistani society faces several issues which affect the lives of its citizens
significantly. All these issues not only affect the socio-economic life of an
individual but his/her political and electoral behaviour also. The study identified
terrorism, corruption, poverty, illiteracy and energy crisis as the major issues in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It, therefore, attempts to explore the role played by the
identified issues in determining voting behaviour in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. „Issue
Ownership Theory‟ and „The Riding the Way Theory‟ were operationalized for
supporting the study from theoretical point of view. Data were randomly collected
from the respondents in Northern, central and Southern geographical regions of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and analyzed quantitatively. The findings of the study
reveal that terrorism and corruption were the salient issues that played a
significant role in determining the voting behavior of the people of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa in general elections 2013 besides the issue of poverty, illiteracy and
energy crisis.

Keywords: Issue Voting; Issue Ownership Theory; The Riding the Way Theory;
Terrorism; Corruption; Voting Behaviour.