Nov 222009
Election Day is here and I’ve just exercised my right to vote. Today’s photo shows you the back of my national ID. If you look in the upper right corner, you’ll see the sticker marked “Voted P2009” where P stands for presidential (elections). The turnout at my voting section wasn’t bad, there were quite a few people there. No lines though, as there were in the 1990’s when people were still enthusiastic about our new democracy. I’m quite curious to find out the official numbers for the turnout.
Usually a low turnout means disinterest, but even that people don't think that democracy is in peril. More stable democracies have historically low turnouts, am I too optimistic?
You're right, many stable democracies have low turnouts but I think in their case the disinterest has a different root. For stable democracies the disinterest is somewhere along the lines "we don't care so much about who's in office as long as business goes on". In Romania the disinterest is based on "all politicians are corrupt and no matter who I vote for it won't make a difference for us common people".
The turnout was 53% which I think is pretty good. No candidate got 50% so there's going to be a second round of voting in two weeks.
I have just read in the local papers that for the first time a polling station was open for Romanian citizen here in Livorno. For the last election they had to go to Florence. If there is a second round may be I'll try to snap some pictures where allowed…
Your national ID carries a record of how often you voted! Wow!
AB: I didn't realize that before, but you're right. Big Brother at work 🙂 Some of those are for local elections and one is for another referendum.
Does Romania has some form of compulsory voting to stimulate the turnout? Well, Argentina does. Here, the dysfunctional political class needs some "official" legitimation. So they can always say, "Hey, you voted either for us or other parties and thus approved the nonsense we are making".