With one month to go before the local elections, just 42% of potential voters definitely plan to vote, according to TNS Nipo research involving 1,300 people.

Care services are the most important issue – local councils will be given responsibility for long-term non-residential care from 2015.

TNS Nipo said that based on earlier experiences these results make it unlikely turnout will be more than 50%. If so, it would be the lowest percentage ever recorded, Nos television says.

People’s main reason for staying at home is that ‘politicians don’t listen’ and that they know too little about local parties to vote for them. Local parties combined took 25% of the vote in 2010.