ISLAMABAD – Pakistan General Elections 2018 are looming near the finishline. With just five days to go, election fever has hit full hype. Theunforeseen events building up to the polling day have contributed to someunexpected survey findings and analysis.
With the internet access, Google is our means to stay updated with thelatest political happenings. Here, we thought of identifying andvisualizing search interests pertaining to the upcoming elections byleveraging Google Trends, Tech Juice has reported a survey.
We have picked up data via Google Trends, belonging to the three keycontesting political parties. The data in no way give a verdict for thepopularity of any party but instead tells the search interests of aparticular province. Let’s have a look on how Pakistan is searching forGeneral Elections 2018?
Here is a color key to understanding the data visuals,
[image: Key – Parties]
If we view the interest over the past month, PTI and PML-N appear to beneck-to-neck. However, since the end of June, PTI has been maintainingapproximately 30 point lead and 60 point lead against PML-N and PPPrespectively.
[image: Parties-Comparison-Update]
If we break down the search interest of each province, the insights appearto be a bit surprising. Superimposing the interests as shown in the firstfigure relative to each political party, PTI appears to have a strongholdin FATA while it is competing with other parties to maintain a stronginterest in Punjab, Sindh and interestingly in KPK as well. Meanwhile,search trends for PML-N in Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan seem healthy.PPP, however, has not generated enough interest to compete with the otherbig two, even in Sindh. When we isolate the data for each political party,PML-N is enjoying peak popularity in Punjab while PTI is 25 points behind.Similarly, PPP has garnered peak search interest in Sindh only.
[image: maps]
If we further break down the interest for major cities, PTI and PML-Nappear to be in close competition in Faisalabad and Lahore. Whereas, PTIappears to take the lead in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Karachi represents aninteresting picture. PTI may appear to be popular but relative to the othertwo political parties, there is no side it can swing towards.
[image: Comparison-City]Lastly, when we look up at key political leadersfrom the big three contesting parties, Imran Khan has beaten Shahbaz Sharifand Bilawal Bhutto by a landslide. However, his search interest appears tobe declining in the past week but it still remains way ahead of the othertwo prominent leaders from PML-N and PPP. Moreover, while Shahbaz Sharif’spopularity plummets, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari seems to be rising in searchinterests.
[image: Political-Leaders]While the search interests do not indicate the inclination of voterstowards a particular party, they do however give an insight about thepopularity. With just 27 percent internet penetration in the country. Be itbroadband or 3G/4G services. The online popularity of each party can onlyproduce a limited impact to make it or break it. These online searchinterests differ vastly from offline realities and cannot be generalizedfor a wider population.