KARACHI, Dec 17: A 100-respondent random sample survey conducted by Dawn in Karachi indicated that the majority of the city’s denizens do not know the name of the person who represented them in the National Assembly during the past five years.

The respondents of the citywide survey were all registered voters and belonged to high-, low- and middle-income areas. 57 per cent of the people questioned did not know who had been elected from their constituency as their representative in the last government. Meanwhile, 74 per cent of the respondents said that their member of parliament had not been accessible and that they had not had means of communicating their grievances.

The survey also showed that a mere 21 per cent of the respondents believed that their members of parliament had helped resolve the issues of their constituency, while 13 per cent said that the MPs had been somewhat helpful.

However, 59 per cent of the respondents stated that they considered their vote important and expressed the intention to vote in the Jan 2008 elections. Only 49 per cent of these respondents voted in the 2002 elections.

Of the 31 per cent who said that they would not vote in the upcoming elections, the majority (55 per cent) said that this was because there was no party or candidate worth voting for. Others referred to the possibility of rigged elections and the uselessness of their vote.

By a 76 per cent majority, respondents said that the candidates for the upcoming elections had not yet communicated their elections manifestoes, adding that most candidates are seen only during the elections and hardly ever afterwards.

A random sample of a hundred people across Karachi (all registered voters) was used for the survey, with 46 per cent of the respondents living in middle-income areas, 23 per cent in high-income areas and 31 per cent in low-income areas. 27 per cent of the respondents were women.