Paper Title
Political Participation in The General Election of Thailand: A Case of Students in Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University
Abstract
This research aims to study the political participation of the students in regular programs of Sakon Nakhon
Rajabhat University in the general election of Thailand, and to compare the political participation behavior in the general
election of each groups of the students divided according to demographic factors. The samples were 400 students in the regular
programs from five main faculties who were selected by using simple random technique. The sample size was determined by
using Taro Yamane. The main tool used to collect the data was the questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive
statistics, together with the independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. The data analysis revealed that the level of
political participation of the respondents in the general election, before, during, and after the election, was all found to be at
high level. The top three aspects of pre-election participation were: checking their eligibility in voting; getting involved in an
election campaign; and learning about political parties and candidates. In terms of the participation during the election, the top
three aspects were: casting a ballot; observing vote buying; paying interest in vote-counting process, whereas in terms of the
participation after the election, the top three aspects were: paying close attention in the formation of the government; paying
interest in the result of voting; and paying close attention to the announcement of the official results of the election. When
comparing the political participation of the respondents divided according to the demographic factors (i.e. gender, year of
study, and faculty), there was no variance in all demographic factors used to analyze, therefore, the hypothesis related to the
difference of political participation of the students in the general election based on the demographic profile was rejected.
Index Terms- general election, political participation, students