Wizerunki kandydatów w wyborach prezydenckich 1990

Abstract

The research into the images of candidates in voters' consciousness and into the characteristics of constituencies supporting those candidates in the first round of the 1990 Presidential election was conducted, by means of the "captive audience" questionnaire, in February/March 1991 on a nonprobabilistic sample of 91 extramural students of A. Mickiewicz University. The respondents were young teachers and clerks resident in Poznań and in Wielkopolska region. The questionnaire contained open questions concerning the evaluation of the candidates and 10 general, graphic, discreet and 7-grade evaluation scales used in C. Osgood's semantic differential. In comparison with the all-Polish electorate, the respondents were more often in favour of Mazowiecki and Cimoszewicz and less often in favour of Wałęsa and Tymiński. The research allowed to distinguish the following groupings of electorates: 1. the constituencies of Mazowiecki and Cimoszewicz and those who abstained from voting in both rounds; 2. the constituency of Tymiński; 3. the constituency of Wałęsa. Besides, the research pointed out to the similarities between the images of: 1. Mazowiecki, Cimoszewicz and Bartoszcze; 2. Wałęsa, Moczulski and Tymiński, especially if the arrangement of measures of potency, activity and valuation is replaced with the arrangement of measures of kindliness, truthfulness and efficiency (potency and activity). A cumulative index of the latter measures functioned as the indicator of the voters' preference.