To Vote - Or Not to Vote

Written by Andrew Duff MEP and published in Royston Crow on Fri 10th May 2002

Last Thursday just over a third of us were moved to vote in the local elections. I am neither surprised nor particularly depressed by that turnout. We 34 per cent of the English public that voted are the hard core of the country's political system. A third of the total is a large core. We will vote in almost any circumstances, and are proud to do so. As for the rest of you, you seem fairly contented to let us vote on your behalf. You get the local councils we want.

In the thrills and spills of election night, Liberal Democrats in the East of England are celebrating a number of notable victories. We have taken control of Norwich, and successfully defended our control of Brentwood, Cambridge and Three Rivers. The directly elected Mayor of Watford is a Lib Dem. We have our first councillor in Thurrock. We have made gains from Ipswich to Peterborough and back. The system cannot be all bad.

This government, as we know, is much taken with gimmickry. It has tried all sorts of blandishments to encourage more people to vote. Glitzy supermarkets replace dank church halls as polling stations. In some places last Thursday, one could even vote by mobile phone (although very few did). Quite rightly, postal voting has become less bureaucratic. Sunday voting should be considered, as in most of mainland Europe. Not only do people have more time to spare on Sundays to devote to politics, but voting can be a family outing, encouraging the young to emulate their parents' sense of civic duty - even if they vote contrariwise.

Last Sunday across the Channel, over 80 per cent of the French people voted despite the fact that everyone knew what the outcome was going to be. Jacques Chirac won the second round of the presidential elections because he represented the Republic of De Gaulle against the heirs of Pétain. Fears about security and the future of democracy prevailed on France to vote.

Similarly, next week in the Dutch general election the turnout will be high. Recent trends of very low electoral participation in the Netherlands have reflected the fact that most Dutch are comfortably off and at least as withdrawn from civic life as the British. But the assassination of Pim Fortuyn and the continuing spate of political murders in Spain show us again how fragile are Europe's liberties, and how much we need a strong European Union to protect them.