Majority of Goans are aware of ‘Brexit’. United Kingdom(UK) conducting a referendum on whether to stay in the European Union (EU) or to leave it. Future of thousands of Goans hangs in the balance as many have acquired Portuguese citizenship specifically to work in UK. Opinion polls conducted before the referendum shows neither side having a clear majority.
Different groups involved
For now the opinion poll numbers are in and it seems the race is neck to neck between the two groups. However, there are four players to this game.
1) ‘Remain’ – are the ones that want to stay in the EU.
2) ‘Leave’ – are supporting UK’s exit from EU.
3) ‘Undecided’ – these people are yet to decided. It has been highly predicted by UK’s media that this group will decide the outcome.
4) ‘Refrain’ – A small number of people will not vote in the referendum out of choice.
Survey results
In surveys carried out by What UK thinks on June 20, the results of the survey were as follows:
1) How certain are you that you will vote the way you currently intend to in the referendum (1 to 5 scale)
- 1 – Very uncertain – 1%
- 2 – 0%
- 3 – Somewhere in the middle – 8%
- 4 – 9%
- 5 – Certain – 82%
2) How likely are you to vote in the EU referendum? (0 to 10 scale)
- 10 – Will definitely vote – 84%
- 9 – 2%
- 8 – 2%
- 7 – 1%
- 6 – 1%
- 5 – 4%
- 4 – *
- 3 – *
- 2 – 0%
- 1 – *
- 0 – Will not vote – 4%
Which issue is the most important to you when deciding how to vote?
The British economy – 20%
Levels of immigration to the UK – 17%
Sovereignty and who makes British laws – 12%
Public services, including the NHS – 16%
The UK’s influence on the world stage – 5%
Jobs, employment rights and regulations in the UK – 9%
British security and defence – 4%
Justice and human rights in Britain – 4%
None of these – 5%
Don’t know – 9%
Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?
Remain a member of the EU – 45%
Leave the EU – 44%
Don’t know – 11%
A survey on youGov presented similar results. From the results of the opinion polls it seems that the result is going to be a close one. Goans with Portuguese passport living in UK have their future at stake. Besides employed individuals it is going to affect Goans studying there.
Over the past few months debate over ‘Brexit’ has heated up. Finally the D- day is upon us. Read more about ‘Brexit’ in Why is June 23 an important date for Goans? published earlier by ItsGoa.com.
