iblog

Whatever you think of French presidential candidates Sarkozy and Royal, it’s hard not to be impressed with the voter turnout for the elections last week – a whopping 80%. Meanwhile, far away on a slightly more troubed continent, Nigeria’s presidential elections have also been taking place. Sadly, chaos, scattered outbreaks of violence and evidence of vote rigging have marred this election – the third since the end of the military dictatorship in 1999. There is general dismay among the Nigerian populace about the lack of vision and wisdom being shown by their politicians, despite constant promises of a better life. With huge oil wealth, Nigeria’s 250 million inhabitants are surely right to expect an improvement in living standards, but are being let down by leaders who appear more concerned with hanging on to political power than forging a new Nigeria. So what’s their response – voter apathy? Far from it, in parts of Nigeria, voter turnout was 90%. I think we have a lesson to learn from both France and NIgeria here in the UK, where apathy seems to rule the day. At least here we don’t have to contend with stolen, stuffed and missing ballots, or attempts to blow up election buildings. With Welsh Assembly elections coming up in a couple of weeks, I’m making sure I cast my vote and fulfil my democratic duty.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Current Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.