The rules drawn up for participation in the Italian Democratic Party primaries were devised by the the supporters of the current party Leader, Bersani, to make voting difficult for the general population of voters. It has now emerged that there was a particular targetting of young potential voters, the 16-18 year olds, even if they were enrolled in the Party. From 16 onwards people can join the Party, work for the Party, pay dues to the Party, vote in primaries for the regional elections but they have been excluded from voting in this primary. Of course many of them will be 18 by the time the country goes to the general elections next March so it is particularly egregious that they should be so feared by the apparatchiks that they cannot vote now under Party rules to choose the new Leader.
So far there has been success in excluding centrist, non-Party voters, eg civic list voters; voters with a principled opposition to signing vaguely worded, tax and spend pseudo manifestos; those who have no wish to hand their personal details to the apparatchiks; those abroad who found themselves excluded days before the vote by the early cut-off dates for registration; those who couldn't queue for hours and hours; young people who display a marked aversion to voting for bald-headed old communists with a nasty-line in tub-thumping, patronising rhetoric; and perhaps those who can't take time from work to go to the capital cities of their provinces to have their justifications backed-by-documentation ruled on by apparatchik election commissioners.
We need registration to vote for the run-off next Sunday available document free, and on line or available in person at the polling stations up to and including next Sunday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Interesting. There seem to be no limits to what corrupt politicians will do to ensure a party political advantage.
Here in the UK, the so-called Liberal so-called Democrats have torpedoed a long-overdue boundary re-alignment, because they perceive that it will cost them votes. And in Scotland, the egregious Salmond has changed the rules to allow schoolchildren to vote, presumably because he thinks (probably correctly) that they can more easily be swayed by his unpleasant anti-English rhetoric.
btw not a word of these Italian elections is finding its way into the UK legacy media. Not one word.
I have 16 year old pupils who went with their school class to hear Renzi speak a while back, and were interested in what he had to say (we spent most of the lesson discussing, instead of playing Bach).
They would have voted for him, but they can't.
A spokesperson for Bersani has admitted that if the electorate alters between the two votes they will lose so they are determined to prevent any further registrations.
There is a fine post in the HuffPost by the equally fine Chicago economist, Luigi Zigales, pointing out that in all honesty he could not have subscribed to the required declaration of support when Vendola was a candidate as his eco greenery yallery policies are economic madness but that now he has been eliminated he could bring himself to sign the declaration without lying and would like to do so and vote in the second round.
He points out bitterly that Bersani welcomes, indeed seeks alliance with Casini's party which supported Berlusconi for 10 years and that Casini personally voted repeatedly for Berlusconi's ad hominem legislation, but votes from honest electors are banned.
Post a Comment