The Polish Election Bazaar
dragonscave.space
dragonscave.space
Many countries (such as, say, France) have similar laws. Sounds okay to me. So what's the issue here?
The Indian version is called the Model Code of Conduct and it is enforced by the Election Commission of India.[1] The ECI even takes control of the bureaucratic and law and order machinery in the period leading up to the elections.
> So what's the issue here?
Typical left wing complaints about anything and everything in countries where they don't see a chance of returning to power by electoral means. If the people are not voting for them, it is obviously because the ruling party and their supporters are fascists. There can be no other reason.
These narratives are built and spread using their control of media. Their friends in the Global Left help amplify the message.
Especially when one of the chief complaints about the democratic backsliding in Poland and Hungary is precisely the encroachment on freedom of press (together with the erosion of the separation of powers).
The practice of the media predicting results based on exit polls and then everyone just treating them as if they're authoritative is equally bizarre.
But the incremental results: we have distributed elections. For the people reporting results the election is over.
If you only vote for president? There’s no reason to go to the polls in the majority of states.
The problems even worse in Australia where voting is mandatory with a fine but if you’re in Western Australia you could be “forced” to vote in an already concluded election.
Western Australians are voting for completely different MPs and Senators to people in other states/electorates, and even if they weren't it's a small price to pay compared to having half the country not turn up on voting day.
Politicians should have a page on the electoral commission's website, like a university professor's page on the university website.
People can type in their postcode on the website, see who's on the ballot and look at their policies, then vote on the date.
No campaigning. No advertising. No flyers. No social media. Nothing.
Randomise the position on the ballot.
If people go to the polls on the day with no idea who to vote for, it will be a better outcome than people having been manipulated with big money through aggressive media campaigns to vote one way or the other.
Keep in mind that majority of politicians do this for a living and some don't even hesitate to jump ship/parties as long as they keep their chairs in committees, etc.
It seems that's been the function of revolutions and coups for centuries, although occasionally a natural disaster provides the opportunity.
However, there is another concept from ancient wisdom, designed to break the inevitable cyclic stick-slip "sawtooth wave" of periodic violent reset.
It is the "Jubilee" [0]
In modern terms we'd have something like; every generation all political offices become null and void. Nobody who has been in any office for more than a year can ever re-enter politics. It would also be helpful at that point to break up too-large corporations and cancel debts.
It's like controlled burning.
Much of the misery and stagnation we face today is down to a lack of planned destruction.
At the bare least, there are valid reasons to vote for someone beyond what they say on their policy statement. And social media and campaigning allows them to engage with voters and answer questions. And without a least a bit of the election circus I wonder how many people will disengage with the process, causing elections to lose legitimacy and be decided by a small number of zealous party loyalists.
Maybe it would help if the laws were stricter that they need to take them down sooner after the election or are not allowed to put them up so much earlier, but still.
The social problem for me is that I am forced to look at xenophobic right-wing propaganda when going outside. Or just plain lies "we did a thing" by the ruling party, where thing is 100% provably not true, but because of weasel words they are allowed to do this.
Also a lot of the voter influecing is done through almost invisible campaigns such as the "carbon footprint" or neo-liberal content in tv soaps and the like.
Generally the „products” share a prefix with one of the parties.
For example, KO (koalicja obywatelska) - kolendra (cilantro).
[0]: https://twitter.com/dominikdrzazga/status/171360390555935949...
Personally I thinks it's a good idea - voting ahould be calm and considered.
Unlike discussions in your house of commons...
Say you were willing to cheat to have your candidate win the vote. Not uncommon historically through out the world. One way of doing it is to wait for election results, then make up the margin with fake ballots or fraud. This is why the opportunity to cheat is greater if elections take a week to tabulate, as opposed to same day results.
Not knowing the results, and not being able to game the system, even for one day, in theory should more accurately reflect the will of the general population, even the ones that don't vote.
Apart from countries with mandatory elections, like Australia which reaches ~90% turnout.
How does "not voting" not reflect the will of the people? They're not forced to not vote. It's their will to not vote.
Sampling Errors, where the method of voting favors only certain demographics would produce such results