Aspects of political leadership relevant to voters choice and preferences

Abstract

This paper intends to analyse political leadership from the perspective of political behaviour of political leaders. There must be a reason for voters to decide which election candidate to vote. Political leadership as contextually described represent some of the most important elements for voters to decide whether or not a particular leader should be elected as Member of Parliament or State Legislative Assemblies in Malaysia. There are five aspects of political leadership forming leadership characters relevant to voters’ choice and preferences in any given election. They are loyalty, integrity, competency, commitment and resilience. The absence of these characters could render a particular candidacy a fatal. These five characters could be regarded as principle centred of a leader and in the same time the main features that would contribute to the success of an elected political leader. It is not only words best spoken by the candidate but also the campaigner’s success in highlighting these characters to the voters that would open their eyes to vote the best candidate. In some cases, traditionally, at some constituency votes are given to the parties that have been traditionally representing the constituency. To a certain extent it is called the party’s ‘traditional seat’. Now, voters do not only look to a party or the so-called ‘traditional seat’ context. Today voters give high regards to who the candidates are and what are the qualities the candidates have.