Tingkah laku mengundi pada pilihanraya Gabernor Sumatera Barat 2005

This research examines the theory of voting behavior and it application in 2005 West Sumatra Governor Election. The main problem of this research is why voting pattern of 2005 West Sumatra Governor Election is not correlated to voting pattern of 2004 West Sumatera Legislative Election. Candidates who were supported by big parties were not elected. In contrast, candidates who were supported by small parties was voted in the election. The research question is then; Is there different voting behavior according to demographic characteristics and does the perception and evaluation of voters to candidates quality, campaign issues, frequency contact to mass media, regional bond influence to voting behavior of 2005 West Sumatra Governor Election. There are five predictor variables were used in this research such as the demographic characteristics, candidate quality, campaign issues, mass media contacts, and regional bond. The dependent variable is voting behavior. The objective of this research is; to understand the difference of voting behavior which connected to demographic characteristics, and to identify the influence of voter's perception and evaluation on candidates quality, campaign issues, frequency contact with mass media, and regional bond to the voting behavior in the election. Questionnaire were distributed to the community voters at Padang city area and Limapuluh Kota region. Samples of the respondents were determined by multistage random sampling and consisted of 416 voters and determined by multistage random
technique. Data is analyzed with several techniques such as cross tabulation, chi square, and multinomial regression technique. The study concludes that; voting behavior at the governor election can not be distinguished by demographic characteristics. Voter's perception and evaluation of candidates quality, campaign issues, and regional bond were significantly influenced to the voting behavior in 2005 West Sumatera Governor Election, while regional bond were not significantly influenced to the voting behavior. The result of this research imply that candidate quality, campaign issues, regional bond are importance in understanding voting behavior of citizens of West Sumatra.