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Youngsters see political parties as employment and advancement opportunities

24.12.2016

Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) has conducted a public opinion poll among young voters from age 17 to 21 year. The poll was conducted from November 26th to December 9th, and included 1,200 respondents, or based on gender is 50.3% of respondents are girls and 49.7% are boys. To represent the distribution of the population based on ethnicity and place of residence, 71.9% of respondents are Albanians, 16.7% are Serbs and other communities with 11.4%, while 52.7% are residents from rural areas whereas 47.3% are from urban areas. The margin of error is + – 2.74%. According to poll results, 70% of young people in Kosovo stated that country is going in the wrong direction. When answering to list the 5 main concerns that should be addressed from the government, young people have listed as most important: unemployment (65.1%); Economic development (54.6%); Fighting corruption (51.3%); Health (42.2%) and visa liberalization (4.1%). Young people have declared that in the last 12 months they have mostly discussed politics online, despite the fact that their decisions are not influenced by the reactions of others on social networks. The financial situation of families of 52.8% of respondents seems to be difficult to cover monthly expenses, while 75% of them have assessed the work of the Government as weak and inefficient. Regarding the attitude of young people towards political parties, the opinion prevails that the political parties are influenced by a small group of people with great power. As one of the most concerned finding that has emerged from this poll is that young people see political parties as institutions from which they can benefit on employment and an easier way for career advancement. As the most trusted institution among the youth municipalities are ranked at highest, while political parties are ranked with the lowest level of trust. Respondents were asked to give a name of a politician which they see a model politician for them. From 69 different names given by them Albin Kurti is a model for young people with 13.7%, followed by Hashim Thaci (10.5%) and Kadri Veseli (7.5%). While 23.5% of respondents declared that none of the existing politicians are not good model to follow. The interest to participate in future parliamentary elections is high, where 76.1% were interested to cast their vote. Political program, the list of candidates and political party history appears to be one of the determining factors to make them vote for a certain political entity. In this regard, young people between ages of 17 and 21 year have stated that if parliamentary elections were held tomorrow, they would vote as follows: for the political party Movement for SELF-DETERMINATION! (LVV) 27%; Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) 20%; Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) 13%; Alliance for the New Kosovo (AKR) 7%; Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) 7%; Initiative for Kosovo (NPK) 3% and Serbian List (SL) 3%. A large number of respondents around 18% refused to answer the question for which political party they would vote in the next elections.