EVERY VOTE COUNTS
More than half of eligible voters under the age of 25 have not registered to vote and in the wake of the expenses scandal and general political malaise voter turnout is not expected to be high on 6 May, the suspected date of the general election.
If you have not yet registered, please do so immediately by the deadline of Tuesday the 20 April 2010. Please note that none of the Govt websites or any other websites publish this information.
I trust you are a responsible citizen and will do the right thing.
For your information: Poll watch:
On the economy:
- 33% of voters trust Labour
- 27% trust Tories
- 13% Lib Dems
59% think last week’s budget will make no difference to the economy [ComRes/BBC]
50% say it would be unthinkable to elect Gordon Brown as the PM for the next 5 years. 44% disagree and 51% say they feel no enthusiasm for the Tories. 42% feel the opposite. 38% feel UK will be better off with hung Parliament. 53% disagree [ComRes/Independent]
So you see you who are yet unknown, as unregistered, citizens could decide the future of this Country. Your opinion, electoral engagement and participation counts and is crucial. Please go out there and make your mark.
Still undecided? Please read on…
Finally, I am minded to mention this real life incident relayed by a renowned BBC reporter at the very first democratic election in South Africa. There in the given township the queue for voting was inordinately long and slow moving. Everybody was patiently waiting for his/her turn irrespective of the length of time s/he was in the queue. One heavily pregnant woman’s plight caught this reporter’s eye. When asked why she was eagerly and patiently waiting to vote, hungry, thirsty and tired, – she said, pointing to her unborn child, “I am going to vote for the future of my child so that he may never know what it was like not having this right to choose your government.”
Anant M Vyas 