The Effect of Spatial Identities on the Orientation of the Spatial Pattern of the Vote (Study Example: Esfarayen Constituency)

Introduction Place is the center of geography and identity; it is the manifestation of culture in place. Parliamentary elections, as a political event, play an effective role in representing the voters' spatial identities. The interests of individuals play a decisive role in directing their work. The performance and action of humans are subject to the understanding and perception they have of the surrounding geographical environment, which gives meaning to their interests. The geographical environment is a concept mixed with social, political, economic, and natural factors whose intertwining has played a fundamental role in giving direction and meaning to human character, effort and spatial identity. Elections are the highest level of representation of local identities in heterogeneous constituencies in which local identities are  reflected. Due to its geographical location throughout history, Iran has had a wide variety of local identities, among which the elections of the Islamic Council played a role in revealing this diversity of identity and, accordingly, the diversity of spatial voting patterns. In North Khorasan, it is one of those culturally diverse areas from a linguistic point of view, and the identities arising from this diversity have played an effective role in pushing and pulling the votes of the candidates for the election of the Islamic Council. Identities and cultural contexts have sometimes led to the neglect of worthy candidates and competent representatives at the center of national decision-making. Methodology Esfarayen Constituency includes the cities of Bam, Safi Abad and Markazi, which is the third constituency in the province in terms of population. In terms of language, the residents of this area speak the Kurdish dialect of Kurmanji, Tati, Farsi, and Turkish, and religiously, they follow the Shiite religion. This constituency was a part of the constituencies of Khorasan province until the sixth term of the Islamic Council elections, and from the seventh term, with the separation of Khorasan province, this constituency was assigned to North Khorasan province. Esfarayen Constituency has a representative in the Islamic Council. The current research aims to investigate and analyze the impact of spatial identities arising from linguistic diversity on the orientation of the spatial pattern of voting in the Esfarayen constituency. The methodology governing the text has a descriptive-analytical nature, and the statistics and information needed for the research were collected by the library and field method   (questionnaire) and then analyzed using spss software. Conclusion The result of the research showed that the elements of place identity such as the number of co-citizens and co-speakers of the candidate, ethnicity, co-lingualism, ethnic population and co-speakers of the candidate being co-citizens with the election candidate, respectively, had the greatest impact in creating the voter base for the candidate representing the Islamic Council at the constituency level. On the contrary, the parliament candidate's belonging to a particular party, the opinion of religious elders and clan elders, the candidate's experience and education, and the correctness of the candidate were, respectively, less important in getting the votes of the candidates.

کلیدواژه ها:

Spatial Identity ، Election Geography ، Voting Space Pattern ، Esfarayen Constituency. ، هویت مکانی ، جغرافیای انتخابات ، الگوی فضای رای ، حوزه انتخابیه اسفراین.