Statistics tell us that 77% of eligible people voted at this year’s general election. This means that 23% did not vote. It seems hard to understand that almost a quarter of voters do not see the relevance and significance of casting their vote. In this hi-tech age it would seem that getting the message to these people would be increasingly more effective. It is strange however that in 1989 only 11% did not vote. Is this to be an increasing trend in the future? If it is then we should all be very concerned as surly this is the very heart of our democratic system. With out an expensive and exhaustive inquiry into why almost a quarter of our people did not vote we can only speculate. Perhaps some aspiring Masters student could look at this for their thesis or as part of a political assignment.
Is this part of the declining values that seem to be across all sectors of our society? Has the search for the dollar become so all consuming that some people can not even take a few minutes out to cast a vote?