The Election

May 05, 2010 18:29

This is my one and only post pre-election, so for those of you not interested in such matters, ( here's an LJ cut. )

politics, election, democracy, vote

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captainlucy May 6 2010, 12:48:09 UTC
...Sinn Fein have decided not to stand against him
Ah. I, of course, had forgotten that salient factor. Just as well my vote didn't go for him, then. :)

Why do some people think that in a free democracy it's acceptable to force people to go out and vote?

Of course people should not be forced to vote, they shouldn't be forced to do anything they don't want to do. But at the same time, there is a price to living in a free democracy, and that price is eternal vigilance Simon Cowell making your voice heard at election time. Of course, rather than making voting compulsory, one alternative would be that in any constituency where the number of votes cast for the winning candidate is less than the number of registered voters who did not vote, any result is null and void, no MP is returned and another ballot must be held within a short space of time (say 4-6 weeks), and this will continue until a clear winner emerges. That way, the price for not participating in the democratic process is to live in a constituency which has continuous ongoing elections and no parliamentary representation.

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