OPINION

An unvoiced 40 pct

This time, I told myself, it has to be officially counted and included in the exit poll. Voter non-participation in the recent elections was 30 percent in the first round and 40 percent in the second. And the percentage of spoilt and blank votes was hardly negligible. This has to be highlighted as significant, I said to myself; this has to be a worry for candidate mayors and super-prefects. But all concern centered on those who voted, not on those who didn’t – as if that 40 percent hadn’t sent its own «message,» as if this section of the population was not registered on the electoral roll. The 63 percent who voted, on the other hand, had everyone’s support. It was the percentage which shaped the electoral map, which chose our new municipal leaders; the percentage which voted and was therefore entitled to an opinion. And those elected warmly thanked this 63 percent and promised to struggle to fulfill its dreams. As time went on, I felt myself disappearing. No one was congratulating me, nobody wanted to help me shoulder the responsibility for my future. I hadn’t aligned myself with any party and so tomorrow didn’t belong to me. But why did almost half the inhabitants of the two biggest municipalities in the country refuse to vote? This question should worry, shock, provoke thought. Unless, in the kingdom of eternal sameness and merciless repetition which is politics, the only «messages» which can be sent are votes.

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