Sunday 18 May 2014
A morning of boaty stuff, then we were off to the polling station. We had been encouraged to register as voters in the local elections, so here we were, being feted by the party that had woken up to the numbers of expats who had a right to vote.
Here's Dave leaving the polling station at the local junior school. I'd like to have got a shot of the room itself, but you never know what people might get touchy about having photo'd, so I didn't. The voting process was exceptionally complicated - there is a ballot paper for each party with about 30 names on each one. With five parties competing, it means they give you five long paper strips with a total of some 150 names. You can't mix and match. Pick a party, and then pick four municipal and two local councillors. Don't use an X, only 'holy' crosses count: +. Don't use black pen - it may not be allowed, only blue is safe, and if you mix colours they'll throw your ballot away. Very stressful.
Apparently the police were called four times to the Nidri station to sort out fist fights between candidates. Unfortunately no-one tried to bribe us, but we heard it was going on. In some of the villages people were taking your paper off you if you didn't vote for the right party. I studied all this in British social and economic history 'O' level, so it was intriguing actually to be involved.
A morning of boaty stuff, then we were off to the polling station. We had been encouraged to register as voters in the local elections, so here we were, being feted by the party that had woken up to the numbers of expats who had a right to vote.
Here's Dave leaving the polling station at the local junior school. I'd like to have got a shot of the room itself, but you never know what people might get touchy about having photo'd, so I didn't. The voting process was exceptionally complicated - there is a ballot paper for each party with about 30 names on each one. With five parties competing, it means they give you five long paper strips with a total of some 150 names. You can't mix and match. Pick a party, and then pick four municipal and two local councillors. Don't use an X, only 'holy' crosses count: +. Don't use black pen - it may not be allowed, only blue is safe, and if you mix colours they'll throw your ballot away. Very stressful.
Apparently the police were called four times to the Nidri station to sort out fist fights between candidates. Unfortunately no-one tried to bribe us, but we heard it was going on. In some of the villages people were taking your paper off you if you didn't vote for the right party. I studied all this in British social and economic history 'O' level, so it was intriguing actually to be involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment