Religion as a Determinant of Voting Choice in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: A Case Study of District Bannu (NA-35) in 2013 General Election

Abstract

- The paper tests the research question “what is the importance of the religious factor in determining the voting behaviour of the people during general election 2013” under the assumption of Religious Voting Theory through the given hypothesis “People from the religious background were more influenced by religious elements in determining their voting behaviour than those living in the secular environment”. The empirical data collected during this study supports the arguments that District Bannu lies in the periphery of the province has less exposure to heterogeneous socio-cultural backgrounds. Meanwhile, its proximity with the two highly Talibanized North Waziristan District and South Waziristan District shaped its static religious voting behaviour. It further contends that the religious voting in District Bannu (NA-35) was greater than any district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as 51.48% of the total respondents voted in favour of religious voting in District Bannu (NA-35).