I am very surprised that with a referendum vote so important to the future of Greece that 37% of Greeks did not vote.
I would have expected the voter turnout to be 90%+.
Why such apathy ?
It’s quite the tragedy.
What was the electoral turnout in the last 10 years? There’s a lot of people who apparently believe that if they ignore politics, politics will ignore them. It doesn’t work that way.
Maybe it’s because the issue is so confusing that people (like me!) just can’t understand it.
Neither option is good, and and either Yes or No leads to chaos.
Either they drop the Euro, go bankrupt,and destroy their own economy.
Or they stay with the Euro, go bankrupt, and let Europe destroy their economy.
If I were in Greece, I would have no idea how to vote.
(And my guess is that it doesn’t make much difference: Whether Yes or No-- the Europeans will have to step in and save Greece. Otherwise, by next week there will be no food in the grocery stores.
When African nations collapse, nobody cares. But Greece is a westernized nation-- with full TV coverage.
I agree with this. I’ve actually spent some time trying to understand the issues, and the implication of the vote, and failed to come to a solid consensus in my own mind. Can’t blame the average Greek-on-the-street for being just as confused.
63% is actually not that terrible. For reference, the last US Presidential election only concerned 55% of the population, down from 57% in the previous. In France, the turnout for the referendum that created the Euro (and the EU) in the first place was a mere 69%.
And, like **clairobscur **says, it’s complicated stuff and both votes lead to terrible outcomes. I wouldn’t know how to vote either.
But then, I don’t vote in general, so ;).
Huh?
As far as I could tell, there was no absentee voting option - no postal voting and you had to vote where you’re registered.
In the middle of summer in a country where 20% of people work in the tourism sector, many people don’t work where they’re registered to vote. I’m sure it can be a struggle to actually get home at short notice when you have no access to money because the banks are closed. And with the economy being what it is, asking your boss for time off work might not be a great idea.
They’re normally around 70-75% - but a lower 63% in the 2012 and 2015 elections - which seems low for a country with compulsory voting.
I think 63% is not shocking under the circumstances, especially given the vague options.
I think he was quoting me…and my username does start with a “C”, after all…
And I’m not at all offended, …but I am kind of wondering what kind of spell-check program can autofill “clairobscur”.
[/hijack]
Channeling that great democrat Lev Bronstein ?
When the political class hold plebiscites, and get the wrong answer, they mostly re-frame and keep asking the question until the plebs fall into line. This happened in Ireland over some EU crap, and it will happen with Scottish Independence until it is gained. Such leads to the delinquent voters not bothering because they can see through the charade of their opinions being requested to make the bosses feel big.
Just as if the politicos merely wanted a chorus.
I suspect there is a lot of truth in this.
You can think of this in the same vein as the classic ethical thought experiment, You have a runaway train tearing down the tracks to a set of points. Left alone the train will randomly take either track A (where it will crash into and kill a group of 10 workers) or track B (where it will crash into and kill a group of 11 workers).
So what do you do?
I suspect many people will be happy to leave it all up to fate.
Yes. I’m sorry for the confusion, I read kinda fast :o, I sort of got used to **clairobscur **being exactly right about things a few hours before me, and like you said both your usernames start with Cs and are sorta long, so…
Again, my apologies.
Not only confused but maybe they just couldn’t make up their minds. Both options lead to pretty atrocious consequences.
The rest didn’t want to leave the ATM queue.
X DAMNED if you do.
X DAMNED if you don’t.
Pick one.
This. I am actually surprised turn out was so high for a vote in which there were no good options.
Just reading this thread and all of the news about the whole situation a) depresses the hell out of me and b) confuses the hell out of me.
And I am living 3000 miles away. Those poor sods have to live it. I can totally understand feeling disenfranchised, and maybe thinking that the leaders are going to do whatever they want anyway.
Or maybe they hoped that better, smarter people would make the correct decision. I just don’t see a win for the Greek people, in any direction.
Honestly I wouldn’t know how to vote, either? Which is better - voting but not understanding the issues, but hey! I voted! Or knowing that I don’t understand them fully and abstaining?
FTR, I am honestly not sure myself.
Pretty much this. A lot of folks are very confused by the ramification of what would be at stake with either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote. There was a lot of rhetoric and scare tactics on both sides in the run up, and I’d guess that the 37% that didn’t vote simply didn’t know what to think and figured they were screwed no matter what…which is kind of true. Even experts are in disagreement over what will happen if Greece leaves the EZ (and maybe the EU), or what sorts of negotiating room this referendum will give the Greek government in new terms with the ECB and EZ this week.
I’ll suggest that 37% didn’t understand what the vote was about, and 63% only think they do.
Judging by the confused reaction from all quarters, I really don’t think anyone has a clue what this means or how it will pan out.
Which makes me think this is ripe for a cobbled-together compromise that’ll avoid disaster for a little while longer. “kicking the can down the road” I believe is the phrase.
Well that’s been the general response for the last 5 years so why stop now?