4 of 5 Filipinos find May 2019 polls ‘believable’—SWS

MANILA, Philippines — Majority of Filipinos were satisfied with the conduct and results of the May 2019 elections, showed a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Tuesday.

The survey said 80 percent of Filipinos were satisfied with how the midterm elections were conducted, while 12 percent were dissatisfied, and seven percent were undecided.

This gives a net satisfaction rating of +68, classified by the SWS as very good, which is five points below the record-high excellent +73 in June 2016.

About 86 percent of Filipinos say the results of the elections are “believable” for senators, 88 percent for lower house members, 84 percent for governors, and 89 percent for mayors, showed the SWS survey.

At the same time, 79 percent agree that the Commission on Elections performed its job in the recent polls “independently without favoring any candidate or group.” Eleven percent are undecided, and 10 percent disagree.

This gives a net satisfaction rating for Comelec of extremely strong +70, higher by nine points from the extremely strong +61 in June 2013.

Voters fill out their ballots at Inabanga South Central Elem. School Inabanga, Bohol during the May 13, 2019 midterm elections. (Photo courtesy of Gerwin Yudelmo)

The SWS computes the net satisfaction rating by subtracting the percentage of respondents who agree with those who disagree with a certain point raised in the survey.

The SWS also noted that net satisfaction with the conduct of elections was highest in Mindanao at +77, classified as excellent, followed by Visayas at excellent +71, Balance Luzon at very good +66, and Metro Manila at very good +54.

Meanwhile, those who believe that the results of elections were believable for senators was highest in Mindanao at 90 percent, followed by Balance Luzon and Visayas both at 86 percent, and Metro Manila at 81 percent.

The survey was conducted from June 22 to 26, using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents aged 18 years old, with 300 each from Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

It had sampling error margins of ±3 for national percentages, and ±6 each for Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.