How to fool the electorate all the time
South Africa has their local government elections on March 1st 2006. True to form the day has been declared a public holiday so the 35% can go vote. The other 65% of people smile happily and make plans on what to do that day.
Business bemoans lost productivity and additional costs.
Why can the guys not make voting day on a Friday. Long weekends are so much more fun than a holiday on a Wednesday.
That said: All the lamp poles over the province have grown placards. The DA seems to have spent a load of money on Tony Leon pictures and the ANC has one basic poster which elicits a chuckle every time I see it.
“IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY – VOTE ANC” the poster extorts. My argument is the ANC is in power and have been for the last 12 years or so. Saying if you vote ANC it will improve service delivery is a bit like shooting yourself in the foot. Friendly ANC – you have been in power for 12 years. If you have not done what you had set out to do over the 12 years and improvement is required… you are doing something wrong!
BUT: The best of it is:
Due to the weird voting system we have here, at local government elections you do not vote for a person. You vote for a party. The party then decided who represents you at your ward level. That way ensuring that the person that represents you is not responsible to the voter, but to the party. And I am sure that many people are scratching their heads wondering why service delivery is foul. Rocket science it does not take. Managment 101 it does.
But even better this year, the ANC has decided not to declare who the mayors are going to be until AFTER the election. Now kick me and call me stupid! Ask me to vote for a leader when I do not know who the leader is….if by failing to declare who is going to head the local government that you rely on all sorts of daily services and making it a party responsibility do you really expect me to cast my vote?
I mean let’s see. On the party list you have a candidate who was tossed out of government due to fraudulent travel claims. You can quite happily make that person mayor. And I “voted” for that person. There are numerous mayors who have run their municipal areas into the ground and quite happily got paid bonuses. I must “vote” for them?
Nope – I think the ANC are telling the voters “we do not give a shit about you. Vote for us (we are going to win anyway as we rely on uneducated masses who are still thanking us for liberating them from the evils of apartheid) and we will put whoever we feel like in charge.
The DA? They are very much a me too party. No new ideas and happily part of the opposition and will always be. You can see who is resigned to been opposition. No new ideas and only knock the ruling party, even if what they plan is a good idea.
So our democratic society stumbles on.
Me? I am not registered to vote as I do believe the voting system is rigged by not making a person responsible to the electorate. SO what the hell – screw me with your increase in rates, poor water service, billing problems and roads that fall apart. Boast that you have delivered houses that are falling down, increased people’s living standards and are the best thing for the people.
I will put my head down and work for a living. Cause at the end of the day that’s all we the masses can do.
Business bemoans lost productivity and additional costs.
Why can the guys not make voting day on a Friday. Long weekends are so much more fun than a holiday on a Wednesday.
That said: All the lamp poles over the province have grown placards. The DA seems to have spent a load of money on Tony Leon pictures and the ANC has one basic poster which elicits a chuckle every time I see it.
“IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY – VOTE ANC” the poster extorts. My argument is the ANC is in power and have been for the last 12 years or so. Saying if you vote ANC it will improve service delivery is a bit like shooting yourself in the foot. Friendly ANC – you have been in power for 12 years. If you have not done what you had set out to do over the 12 years and improvement is required… you are doing something wrong!
BUT: The best of it is:
Due to the weird voting system we have here, at local government elections you do not vote for a person. You vote for a party. The party then decided who represents you at your ward level. That way ensuring that the person that represents you is not responsible to the voter, but to the party. And I am sure that many people are scratching their heads wondering why service delivery is foul. Rocket science it does not take. Managment 101 it does.
But even better this year, the ANC has decided not to declare who the mayors are going to be until AFTER the election. Now kick me and call me stupid! Ask me to vote for a leader when I do not know who the leader is….if by failing to declare who is going to head the local government that you rely on all sorts of daily services and making it a party responsibility do you really expect me to cast my vote?
I mean let’s see. On the party list you have a candidate who was tossed out of government due to fraudulent travel claims. You can quite happily make that person mayor. And I “voted” for that person. There are numerous mayors who have run their municipal areas into the ground and quite happily got paid bonuses. I must “vote” for them?
Nope – I think the ANC are telling the voters “we do not give a shit about you. Vote for us (we are going to win anyway as we rely on uneducated masses who are still thanking us for liberating them from the evils of apartheid) and we will put whoever we feel like in charge.
The DA? They are very much a me too party. No new ideas and happily part of the opposition and will always be. You can see who is resigned to been opposition. No new ideas and only knock the ruling party, even if what they plan is a good idea.
So our democratic society stumbles on.
Me? I am not registered to vote as I do believe the voting system is rigged by not making a person responsible to the electorate. SO what the hell – screw me with your increase in rates, poor water service, billing problems and roads that fall apart. Boast that you have delivered houses that are falling down, increased people’s living standards and are the best thing for the people.
I will put my head down and work for a living. Cause at the end of the day that’s all we the masses can do.
1 Comments:
You said nothing about the floor crossing thing ....
Hey, at least it's a public holiday, maybe _I_ can make a long weekend out of this ;)
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