The first round of French regional elections have shown that President Sarkozy's UMP party sits in second place. The Socialist Party took 29% whereas the UMP took about 25%. The BBC cited issues of low popularity and high unemployment. These are considerable issues impacting the strength of the party. However these issues would not impact the low voter turnout. Only 46% of eligible voters went to the polls which is significantly lower than the previous low of 57% in 1998 and 60% in 2004.
My thought is that if there is greater dissatisfaction with government more people would vote and if more people are unemployed, more people have the chance to vote. However, this does not appear to be the case. I would then pose hypotheses about the declining voter participation. One, though people are dissatisfied, they no longer believe they can affect change, or they are too disgruntled to participate. Two, though people have more flexible schedules from being unemployed, they may have less capacity to get to the polling place.
These conjectures are just mere thoughts to provoke our resident Frenchman to explain this situation--hopefully before the next round of elections. I am also curious whether or not he took the time to vote in this election or whether he left it up to his compatriots to fulfill his civic duty.
i couldnt vote because i was away in england however I think that these regional elections do not carry much weight because they do not seem to affect the life of everyday of the citizens.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that given the current times, crisis and scandals, people are a bit disgruntled with politicians from all sides.
I think that s a valid reason.
On the other hand, the election was on the 14 march and thus a sunday, so every citizens in France should have been free to vote. As for the unemployed people, I dont think that they dont have the capacity to vote but rather dont have the will.
Personally, i do not care that much about these elections although i read some flyers that were sent to me. I just feel, as a jobless person looking to build my future abroad, somewhat detached from my country and its debates.
i m a bit perplex about the utility of these elections, from a parisian point of view, because we are supposed to elect some regional advisors but I dont really know how it works with the election of a mayor from a different political side (in addition, i believe that a mayor holds more power than these advisors, so what s their point??)
I also wouldnt be surprised if people did not know the full extent of the implications of these elections thus increasing the number of non-voters.