Voting Time

Last week was a highpoint for me. I got to vote in my first Swedish elections. Not for the Swedish government itself, but for Swedish representation in the EU parliament. I've always been a big supporter of voting. Maybe that came from my late mother, she was always saying that people who didn't vote, didn't have the right to complain about the result. Not exactly sure what she was getting at, but I've always voted as a result. This voting process was a bit dragged out, I thought. People need time to be able to get to a voting station and cast their vote, but I think that giving them a full working week and a full weekend right through until 9pm on Sunday evening, is a bit excessive. If people want to vote then they will make the effort and find the time. On the positive side, there was no queues when we turned up on Friday to cast our votes.

As I said, I've never voted in Sweden before so I don't know if  the EU vote was a typical voting process or if it changes under the national and local goverment election period. But it was different to what I was used to. In New Zealand, you signed youself in at the reception desk, received a form, and then you went to the booth and voted. On the form was listed all of the political parties and avaliable politicians to choose from. With the EU voting process, you selected a form yourself, which only contained information about the particular party you wished to vote for. You then casted you vote for that party by placing the card into the envelope provided, and returned the sealed envelope to the registration desk where they signed off on you ID. As an added option, you could choose to selected which person from that party you wanted to be your representive. What you couldn't do, I don't think, was to vote for an individual who wasn't a member of the party you were voting for.

 

Let's say, for example, that you wanted to vote for the left wing party. You would take the form that was titled with the left wing party name. On that form was also listed the names of all the members of that left wing party who were interested in sitting in the EU Parliamént. If you didn't know or like any of them, then you didn't make the box beside any of the names. You were voting for the party but not for any individuals. But what if you knew someone who was a member of a right wing party who you thought was a pretty good person and would do good things for your local area ? His name wouldn't be on your form, it appeared only on the form you would use if you were voting for his right wing party. As I said, it may well be different when it comes to the general elections.

 

Anyway, I voted, and I counted. I think that voting is important. It is not just about voting for the people you want, it is also voting to make sure that that people you don't want in parliament don't get in. And that is currently perhaps the most important vote in Europe. I'll be straight up about what I believe in. I believe that the open border policy in Europe has proven to be a disaster. It was niave right from the very beginning and now has spiraled completely out out control. I think that the fundamentals of the EU system can function perfectly well with the reintroduction of movement control. It's going to happen anyway, the current system is not sustainable. For that reason, I'm not 100% against some of the theories behind some of the Swedish Democrats thinking. They have identified the problem that most people don't really want to talk abut. And it is a problem which needs solving. Unfortunately the SDs are also complete fruitbats and you wouldn't want them driving your bus, let alone a government. They took  a reasonable thinking and turned it into something warped and bizarre. The real parties, the serious ones, should be looking at what parties such as the SD are saying and then try to adapt them into a reasonable reality. If they can do that then they will have done away with the need to bother with the SD party, and they will disappear back into the shadows again. That would be the ideal solution in my view. Fix the problem, but do it in a civilised manner.