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Today's |
The Blog
Saturday June 5, 2004
It's a busy political year: elections in Canada and the States and finally the only elections I can vote in: the European Parliament elections. I follow the elections in Canada with great interest even if I am not allowed to vote since I am not a citizen. Not that they really check. As long you show up at the voting station with a driver's license you could vote but of course I am very law obeying person ;-) In 1995 for the Toronto municipal elections I got a voting ballot in the mail that gave me the rights to vote. One small thing: I was officially a tourist. I did go to the voting station and put a red dot in front of the names of all the candidates :-)
One of the negative parts of the elections here IMHO is that there are only 3 parties that will end up with seats in parliament which really limits your choice. Basically there is a left wing, central and right wing party. Compare that with the 15 Dutch political parties that I can choose from to represent me in the European Parliament. There is even a "Party for the animals" although the changes are small they will end up with a seat. Anyway, today I voted through the internet. I fulfilled my duties as a European citizen.
<Update: Much to my surprise the "party for the animals" came very close to a seat. They got more than 3 per cent of the votes but there were only 27 seats and that was just not enough. One of the reasons is that they more or less became a "protest party" which people who vote for because they were tired of the more traditional parties. Where have I heard that before...>
