November 24, 2007

Election Day

Today is Election Day in Australia, and in a few hours we'll find out who the next prime minister will be – "The Turd" or "The Nerd".

By which I mean, we'll have either the very conservative Liberal Party leader John Howard returning for a 5th term of office (which run for 3 years here), or the more left-wing Labor candidate, Kevin Rudd, who wowed visiting Chinese diplomats at the APEC conference by welcoming them in fluent Mandarin.

I've never lived in another country for a federal election before, so it's interesting to see the differences, as well as to have a sense that I'm witnessing a significant part of a country's history take place. Voting is compulsory here, and people are fined for not voting – not something outrageously punitive, but enough to make it easier to just get down to the polls and do it. I think compulsory voting is a great idea, personally, and that it's shameful that in my home country, more people have voted for a reality TV singing competition than for their president. Election Day is also on a Saturday, when the majority of workers are off, so there's no issue about getting time off from work to go vote.

Of paramount strategic significance is the preferential voting system that Australia uses, meaning that votes for minor-party candidates that don't have a majority then get redistributed to a (previously announced) second party, so if you vote for the left-wing Greens candidate, for example, their votes will then get passed on to the Labor party. And best of all, the campaign season here lasts all of six weeks. Yes, that's right: a month and a half is all you have to put up with, not the juggernaut that rolls on for 18 months back in the US. (An Aussie friend was flabbergasted to find out that the election isn't until November 2008 – he thought all the campaigning that's been on the news meant the election was happening now.)

But as interesting as it's been to watch, it's frustrating to not be able to vote. After all, it's "taxation without representation", and that caused a revolution back in America (or so we're told in school). I'm a resident here, and I work and pay taxes, and am subject to these laws that I have absolutely no say in. Of course, I could become a citizen and then be able to vote, but it would take a few more years before I'd be eligible. Of course they're not going to extend voting rights to temporary residents like myself, but it's just another facet of the often liminal experience of the life of an expat.

But at least if I can't vote, I can still celebrate the outcome if the heavily favoured Rudd sweeps into power. In fact, I'm off to an Election Night party right now to watch the returns come in.

Posted by wildsoda at November 24, 2007 07:48 AM
Comments

I think we run our elections very well, as you have described. People moan a bit about having to vote, but in the end I think it gives a much better, much more representative vote than if only the 30-40% who could be bothered or who were sufficiently bribed turned up.

Last election I was in Oman, and we were all shocked and horrified that Howard's government got back in. For some friends, it cemented their decision to stay out of the country, perhaps indefinitely. We have all had to wear the results over the last three years, locally and internationally, and it has not been pretty.

This time I was in the national tallyroom here in Canberra, watching the results come in. The mood was one of apprehension - would we all be so greedy, heartless and stupid again? - and then elation as the swing became more and more solid. A drubbing is what the government got, and the former PM is even in grave danger of losing his own seat.

Now the hard work begins.

Posted by: flerdle at November 25, 2007 12:12 AM

Well, the official campaign is, in this instance, six weeks (and it could be less, depending on when the PM chooses to call an election; let's leave aside the official official campaign launch, which is the point after which the government no longer funds advertising, so that all the money has to come from the parties themselves), but the trend seems to have been for the leaders and front-benchers to go on for much longer well in advance, most notably in this year's run-up, with its seemingly endless series of back-and-forth announcements of tax cuts and spending programs.

Still, it's been fascinating. This was my first federal election where I could vote, and I couldn't be happier at the outcome.

Posted by: Greg at November 26, 2007 04:52 AM