THE ROLE OF THE IMAGE OF THE CANDIDATE ON VOTERS’ CHOICES: A RESEARCH ON THE VOTERS IN KONYA IN THE WAKE OF LOCAL ELECTIONS ON 29 MARCH, 2009

The candidate’s image which expresses all the views regarding the candidate basically consists of his own personal features and the terms of his social and cultural environment such as his community, political party and hometown. in addition to that, these are usually accepted as the determining factors on the formation of voters’ choices before the elections. a scientific field research was recently carried out on voters around the city of konya and the obtained data was evaluated strictly. according to the available data, it was clearly understood that the voters had particularly focused on the candidates’ degree of honesty, reliability, having a brilliant and promising image and also being open to or having new projects for the future of the city. on the other hand, they laid a less stress on some environmental features such as their richness, presently living in the same district or being originally from the same hometown with them and the relatives’ uniting behind them.