‘Short’ cut: quiz to find your party

Jisha Surya

First Published : 23 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Caught in a dilemma about choosing a political party that is close to your ideology? Here is an aid that will help all those who are half-decided about which side their vote will swing. Voting Aid Application (VAA), developed by a group of political scientists and researchers from the Centre for Direct Democracy under University of Zurich, Kerala University and Technopark-based company PIT Solutions, could provide some insight on your political leanings.
The VAA, available on the portal - keralaelections2011.org, offers a set of 30 questions. After answering all the questions, the portal will choose your party from a list which includes Congress, CPI, CPM, IUML, BJP and Kerala Congress. The results are based on the coding of political parties’ position on the 30 policy statements. The questions include opinion on women’s reservation, religious fundamentalism, reservation for top posts, conversion of religion, trade unions, hartals, more tax regulations, land reforms, medical insurance and development. It also assesses one’s priority on the issues of tribesmen, minorities, environment, agriculture, farmers and privatisation. A group of political scientists with University of Zurich developed the project. After successfully implementing in the UK, Brazil, Cyprus, Greece and Peru during the election time, they have decided to launch it in Kerala.
Sajid Ibrahim, assistant professor with the department of politics, University of Kerala, was contacted by the lecturers in Zurich University to advise them on the political situations and parties in Kerala. “The method of selection was developed by a team of political scientists led by Dr  Fernando Mendez of Zurich University. I gave details of the parties in Kerala and also about the ideological issues. I replaced questions on certain general issues like death penalty and introduced some other Kerala-specific issues like women’s reservation, hartal and issues related to tribesmen,” says Sajid Ibrahim. “After launching the project in the developing countries in Europe, they decided to launch it in Kerala. I think this may be because of the peculiar and unpredictable voting pattern of the Keralites. The anti-incumbency factor and unpredictable behaviour have raised their curiosity and they would study it after collecting data through the portal,” Sajid says.
Zurich University members will share the data with University of Kerala.
Along with the questions, the websites also give profile of major parties in the state. Based on the materials provided by the team of professors in Zurich and Kerala University, the portal was developed by PIT Solutions, which has offices in Switzerland and India.
“Our company has collaboration with University of Zurich for the past eight years. The VAA was first used for the UK elections in 2010. The Kerala Election Portal was designed a week ago,” says Arjun, project manager of PITS.