Few are immune to election fever. Almost everyone has an opinion about the political parties and candidates contesting the polls — and the ones worth listening to are invested in social and political change. These are journalists, teachers, businessmen, historians, poets, writers, activists — in short, community leaders working for a more peaceful, democratic and progressive Pakistan. The Herald reached out to 435 such professionals in 72 districts of the country and asked them the questions on everyone’s mind — will more people come out to vote compared to 2013? Was election campaigning more lively and intense this time round? The answers to these and other questions often differ on the basis of people’s political leanings and affiliation. So in order to have a diverse range of opinion, we tried to reach out – for instance, among local press club leaders – to opposing groups in the same district. Though this is admittedly an informal and unscientific sample, we have strived for adequate representation of women and minorities. Below are some of the findings of this exercise:

The respondents were reached via phone and email. The exercise was carried out by Sherry Usman, Fizza Usman, Manal Khan, Maham Anees, Saad Sohail and Maisam Ali Hyder.