The Development of Public Political Participation in Local Administrator Elections of Sirirach Sub-district Municipality, Maetha District, Lampang Province

Abstract

The purposes of this research article were 1) to study the level of political participation development; 2) to study the relationship between Aparihaniyadhamma and the development of political participation; and 3) to study the problems, obstacles, and suggestions for the development of the public political participation in local administrator elections of Sirirajh Subdistrict Municipality, Mae Tha District, Lampang Province. It was a mixed methods research. A sample of 363 people was collected by distributing questionnaires. The statistics used in the research were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation. In terms of qualitative research, in-depth interviews were taken from 9 key informants. Data were analyzed using descriptive content analysis techniques. The results of the research were as follows: 1) the level of development of public political participation  in local administrator election of Sirirajh Subdistrict Municipality, Mae Tha District, Lampang Province found that the overall level was at a moderate level (= 3.49, S.D. = 0.82); 2) the relationship between Aparihaniyadhamma and the development of public political participation in local administrator election of Sirirajh Subdistrict Municipality, Mae Tha District, Lampang Province found that there was a positive relationship with statistical significance at the level of 0.01. Therefore, the hypothesis was accepted; and 3) there were a relatively little public participation in campaigns and public relation or even quite a few group discussions about elections due to the situation of the of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread and relatively little emphasis being placed on voting for elections for local administrator. In terms of recommendations, it was found that there should be public relations for elections through various channels, organizing election training on rules, regulations, orders, announcements, and explaining the importance of voting.