Assumption University's Abac Poll surveyed 1,034 youths aged 14 to 17 on Wednesday and Thursday and released the results yesterday.

When pollsters asked those surveyed what they would do if they were election commissioners, 82.9 per cent said they would resign.

Young people are keenly aware of politics and almost 80 per cent of those surveyed said they would vote if they could, Abac Poll said.

The level of apathy was quite low, with only 7.6 per cent saying they would not vote because politics was boring or voting was meaningless.

Almost 15 per cent said they were unsure whether they would vote if they could.

About 36 per cent of those who said they would vote said they would choose a Thai Rak Thai candidate. About 12 per cent said they would vote for the Democrats and almost 6 per cent said they would vote for other political parties, such as Chat Thai or Mahachon, while 46 per cent said they did not know who they would vote for.

Still, despite the widespread desire to participate, 84.1 per cent of those surveyed agreed that politics was boring. A survey of a similar number of adults on Monday found 73.9 per cent of them saying politics was boring.

Among the youths, about 75 per cent said they had confidence in the Administrative, Supreme and Constitution courts. More than 30 per cent said they had confidence in the Election Commission, while 40.2 per cent said they had confidence in the National Counter-Corruption Commission and 28.5 per cent said they had confidence in the Senate.

The two polls found broadly similar results.

More than 98 per cent of the teens said politics was important to the country, compared with 97.7 per cent of adults. More than 70 per cent of teens said they were worried about Thai politics, compared to 73.7 per cent of adults.

However, only 38.1 per cent of the teens said they felt stress from politics, compared with 45.2 per cent of adults.

More than 10 per cent of the adults surveyed said they had had conflicts within their families or with neighbours and colleagues about politics, while fewer than 10 per cent of the teens said they had had conflicts over politics.

More 63 per cent of the teens said they were confused about how adults could set a good example in terms of politics. About 17 per cent said they were not confused about how adults could do this and 19 per cent did not have an opinion.