The democratic ideology is entrenched in the right of citizens to inclusively participate in matters concerning them. This by virtue requires participation in decision-making and engagement with matters of governance through the elected representatives. For participation to be effective, people should have broad access to information about policy deliberations, they must be consulted and allowed to participate in free and fair elections. To this end, the survey inquired about the level of participation in the most recent general elections; the parliamentary elections held on 6 April 2019. 77.0% of the respondents confirmed having taken part in the election, with 83.3% of women and 65.4% of men responding positively. Despite the high voter turnout of women (105,077) in comparison to men (107, 002), only 4 women were elected to parliament. This response is representative of the 78.41% voter turnout from across the country in the 2018 April elections14. People were also asked to point out any issues with the elections and 46.4% of the respondents were able to identify at least one. While 7.7% cited aggressive campaigning as an issue, 7.0% pointed to mismanagement or incomplete voter registration. 9.6% of respondents thought lack of voter education was a problem. More women (10.1%) than men (8.3%) seemed unhappy about the lack of voter education. Table 71: Perception of problematic aspects of the elections, by region Outer islands Urban Total Lack of voter education 5.95% 11.65% 9.55% Mismanagement or incomplete voter registration 4.19% 8.58% 6.96% Last minute court election rulings 1.54% 4.99% 3.72% Inadequate polling booths 1.98% 2.94% 2.59% Insufficient duration for voting 2.86% 3.84% 3.48% Aggressive campaigns along party lines 11.01% 5.76% 7.69% Other 21.59% 7.04% 12.39% RF 1.54% 3.84% 3.00% DK/NA 49.34% 51.34% 50.61% People’s perception about fair and equitable distribution of resources between administrative atolls and islands was also assessed. More than half (59.0%) of the respondents were unhappy about the allocations. Indicating strong inclination for the need to effectively decentralize. 14 https://www.elections.gov.mv/en/mediacenter/news. html 54 Table 72: Is the distribution of resources between administrative atolls and islands fair Total Strongly Agree 5.63% Agree 13.26% Neither 3.27% Disagree 35.88% Strongly Disagree 23.16% RF 1.73% DK/NA 17.08% Incidentally, more people living in urban regions (67.5%) were unhappy with the distribution of resources between atolls than those in the outer islands (53.8%).