According to the results of a survey, declared on January 24, 2022, on the occasion of the 12th National Voters' Day, an overwhelming 86 per cent of people in the country want voting to be made mandatory.

Over 80% of respondents trust the present voting process in India, stated the pan-India study done by location-based social network platform Public App with a sample size of over four lakh people.

Since 2011, January 25 has been observed as National Voters' Day. The day is observed to commemorate the establishment of the Election Commission in 1950. Its goal is to increase the number of new and young voters who register to vote.

"Making elections inclusive, accessible, and participatory" is the topic of this year's National Voters' Day.

"Voting, as a civic duty, is a crucial contribution to social development by the citizens of the nation. As many as 86 per cent of respondents were in agreement when asked if voting should be made mandatory in the country," the survey stated.

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The findings come ahead of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur, which will be held next month and the results will be announced on March 10.

According to the survey, which included 60% of those under the age of 30, 81 per cent of people believe the present voting procedure is transparent.

The top deciding factors for voters, according to the poll, were the performance of polling candidates in their last term for 34% of respondents, and extensive research of all candidates in the race for 31%.

According to the poll, overall popularity was important to 4.96 per cent of respondents, while the political party of the competing candidate was important to 11.92 per cent.

When asked why people skip out on voting, 30.04 per cent of those polled said: "being in another city" was the reason they didn't vote.

According to the survey, 56.3 per cent said they have never missed out on exercising their rights.

"Among other reasons stated by respondents for not voting in the past," it said, "did not have information about elections (5.22%), did not support any party (7.19%), and got lazy/did not care (1.27%)."

79.5 per cent of those polled stated that they have voted "at least once" in their lives.