2005 & elections

international | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Thursday December 22, 2005 14:59 by iosaf the ipsiphi

a review of articles on election processes worldwide in 2005

There were lots of elections in 2005, only a few of which got covered on indymedia ireland. But because the idea of democracy really took off so much, I wasn't able to write a "how did they vote or "not vote"" article as had in previous years been attempted.

Just a quick recap - listed here.
{My personal favourite was the Andorran general election.}
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the right to participate secretly in an emergent democracy regardless of ethnicity, gender,social class or creed.

not only "geography party" contests, but others of all types. We saw presidents elected, constitutions voted upon, by elections, papal elections, municipals and regional elections.

Indeed there were more elections celebrated in history in 2005 than any other year. We could therefore allow for the margin of error to expand a little. It was not too surprising to see many elections held under less than "proper" conditions, but what must be noted was the obvious turn to oligarchy especially in EU states. It was also not un-noticed that outside of the third world no-one really took much interest in voting a factor which is supporting the "new oligarchies".


February

EU constitution votes began with a hardly enthusiastic mass abstention in Spain (A Sunday papers preview)
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68685
the constitution was to finally get quietly dropped after being rejectd in France and Nederlands and the main sponsers did a quiet little vote themselves:
How The luxembourgish voted and "not voted" for the EU constitution. I was very happy with this, it was my idea.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70770
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March

Kildare By Election March 11 Ireland
how a few Irish Voted and "Not Voted".
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68958
Socrates got elected in Portugal http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68711

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April
My favourite election of all year occured in Andorra.
How the Andorrans voted and "not voted" (a lesson to us all) For 36 hours this was the only english language report on Google on the election. I was chuffed.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69542

"Basque" autonomous parliament in April
how the basques voted & "not voted"
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69442

ratzinger got the job of black pope.
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May

How the Irish and "non-Irish" voted and "not voted" in the Westminster Election in which we said goodbye to David Trimble
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69724
Geography Party triumph in Foreign Election! in which SF got happy about winning lots of seats at stormont and knowing they had no extra admin costs.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69730
Prime Minister of Her Majesty's Govurnmunt of Engurland, Cymru, Scoaturlund and wee Ulster. In which i presented all the characters and made special mention of George Galloway
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69698

The same day How the Palestinians voted and "not voted"
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69703

"How the Croats voted and "not voted" http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69836

There was a Referendum in italy :-
"How the Italians voted and "not voted" across 2 days on the eggies." Abstention reached 75% just like in Venezuela.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70263

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June
might have rivalled the andorran election, a whole bumper edition of the Sunday Papers was devoted to "we are all Galicians" which covered the autonomous elections from first to last vote counted over a period of 5 weeks of very democratic squabbling and Fraga the ex-fascist minister was finally voted out.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70326

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July

The Lebanese stopped their phased voting which had been brought about by the assasination of Harriri. All that story was in "hariri's game and covered 8 parts http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70985&search_text=hariri

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September

Utterly ridiculous, less of the german voters than ever before voted for the two largest parties, who then went into coalition together. An utter parody of the democratic process which can only be seen as oligarchy. Those who voted "for" CDU or SPD and did not vote "for" CDU or SPD and vice versa seeing their franchise subsumed. Who are they to vote for or against next time? Why bother?
It prompted to report the beginning of the Zapatistas on the trail in
"The Government has won the elections in both Germany & Afghanistan and More."
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72055

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December saw me wonder "was bolivar a democrat" as both Chavez won an election on 75% abstention
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73300
and Bolivia elected Morales, a story i covered from beginning in june to his happy election last week
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70194

.%.%..%.%..%.%..%.%..%.%.

Anyway....

The rights to equal suffrage regardless of socio-economic class, gender, or creed in a secret ballot are European rights.

They are rooted in the arguments of Greek sychophants and intellectuals, who never allowed their wives, concubines, slaves or migrants the same rights.

They have roots in the declaration of the rights of man of the French Revolution.

They share the roots with the constitution of the USA.

They have some roots in the equal decision making of the Calvinist and Presbytarian and other dissenting christian faiths.

They owe much to those men and women of the First International who yet again called for as unknown many in previous centuries-

The Universal right to participate in your society and the decisions which effect it, without prejudice or hindrance on grounds of Race, Gender, Creed, Socio-Economic Class, Ownership of Property, and _in secret_.

A Privacy which ironically sits better in the time of hushed confessional boxes than in the socio-economic segregation of archived purchase records and call/weblog history.

The Democratic contract, between state and people, between institutions of state and government and the "estates" of any nation or state, be they military, church, media, academia, or civil service, police, trade unions, political parties and social assembles, must never be taken for granted. & it is clear that that is exactly what has occured in 2005.

Nor is the only expression of Democracy found on "ballot day" when the enfranchised are called to poll.

The expression of democracy must be found every day, if it is to remain in any good health. Its expression relies on the rights of man, as articulated in the French Revolution and First International and United Nations charter of Human Rights.

Freedom of Expression.
Freedom of Association.

are amongst the most important.

In most recent times we have as social assemblies in Europe moved to define in _de facto_ terms if not _de jure_, additional rights of "civil disobedience" and "democratic dissent".

We will continue no doubt, to do so. We need to consider how as dictatorship and authoritarian governments could be so long borne by our Western european peoples, our understanding of democracy is still insufficient to protect its true evolution. To ensure that democracy is protected, now we must also consider other rights - that of "privacy of opinion"

The values of Democracy, of Liberty and Equality and Fraternity are threatened when any of the estates party to the state or nation exert imbalanced and undue power. Those values may exist in either republics or constitutional monarchies in equal measure with change of "accent", we now know that now.
We may not place the "ne plus ultra" on the march of democracy we many not place the "utrum horum mavis ucipe" on the fight against oligarchy.

Our democratic values are undermined by militarised societies, by unchecked police forces, by xenophobic political parties which move against migrants or minorites on ground of creed or race, by trade unions who do not properly represent the interests of their workers, by media owners who attempt to monopolise public opinion and stiffle or limit public debate or manipulate public opinion.

Democracy is about much much more than voting once in a while.

Its about being polled, wearing a bracelet, sending a christmas card, doing phone interviews, filling out questionaires, knowing how to complain, going for a big march at least once a year, and knowing the names of individuals from at least 2 different political parties.

It is more than saying "yes" or "no", in our high technological society of today it is also about "abstention" and "participation". Democracy is about learning and teaching the values of participation in society. From the smallest communities to the largest international stages.

Democracy is a system of values, a constant search for dialogue, a constant re-affirmation of the Rights of Mankind, a constant challenge to authority which stagnates quicker than blood congeals.

Military, Church, Media, Academia, Civil service, police, trade unions, political parties and social assembles, to continue to listen to each other to respect each other, to recognise that any modern society is a tapestry of cause and effect, injury and gift, hurt and understanding. To know that governments & their servants (whatever their nature), stagnate quicker than blood congeals. If there is debate, and motion, protest and challenge, dialogue and exchange - we may yet teach the next generations what democracy can be.

Together we teach the next generations, so that together we move, for we must all realise that our democracies are imperfect. As were the democracies of the ancient greeks, as was the republic of Rome, as was the time of the First International when the majority of Europeans did not vote on gender or class grounds. Together we must realise our democracies are "emergent".

That if we do not make strenous efforts that they constantly evolve for the better they fall back to oligarchy or worse dictatorship.

Our role in social assemblies and as media collectives ought be to help that future democracy emerge, and curtail the threat of monopolised commercial media and opinion.

We are the democr@ts.