Tag: vote AD

Categories
Campaign 2013

Cross-voting and angry voters

Let’s begin with the unequivocal points. Cross-voting, or the practice of filling your preferences in the ballot across party lines, is allowed. It is legal. It is legit. It does not nullify your vote. You can start with a 1 next to a candidate from AD, you can continue with a 2 and 3 next to PN candidates and then you can even move on to a 4 and 5 next to PL candidates. Hell, you can even go back to the PN for number 6 and back again to AD for number 7.

So you see. Do not believe the lies that are out there. You can and should cross-vote. Why? Because elections are not only about governance and governability but also about who represents you in parliament. Even if there is a remote chance that the number 5 on your ballot becomes useful to select a member from your district it is advisable to use it. Cross-voting allows you to influence not only which party goes on to govern but also allows you to select which members of the other party you would prefer to represent your district in parliament. That, my friends, is the “single-transferable vote” which is a much happier term than “cross-voting”.

In a way you could see STV as trying to make your vote as effective as possible since it keeps bouncing from one candidate to another until finally one of the candidates you chose actually gets to use it to get into parliament. As for government forming the all important number is the number 1. That is the vote that also counts for your party of choice – it allows you to say two things: (1) that you would prefer the candidate you marked number 1 as the best option to represent you in parliament and (2) that you would want his party to govern. That second assumption does not move down the lines. The governance assumption starts and stops with the number 1.

So why vote AD with a number 1 if they can never govern? Well in that case this vote takes on a new and fundamentally important meaning. Voting AD number 1 has nothing to do with if and when it will form a coalition or form part of the opposition. (It could eventually but that should not be your motivation). Voting AD number 1 is you telling the system that you want to damn well make sure that a third party gets into parliament. You are saying that you damn well want to make sure that the only open party unencumbered by private or business interests and that is honest and clear on every policy gets to have a seat in our chamber of representatives.

That, my friends is a positive vote. So here are some do’s and dont’s from J’accuse:

1. YES YOU CAN – cross-vote.

2. YES YOU CAN – move from one party to another.

3. YES YOU SHOULD – vote AD number 1 if you REALLY want to make history

4. NO YOU SHOULD NOT – scribble on the document, use X’s or any other signs that are not numbers

5. NO YOU SHOULD NOT – believe the PLPN lies.

 

Spread the word. It appears that there are quite a few who ignore these basic principles. It also appears that our two main parties who are the paladins and guardians of our democratic process are quite happy to nurture this ignorance. You need another reason to vote AD? Seriously?

 

Categories
Campaign 2013

Vote AD, get AD.

So it begins. It was inevitable that the moment the PN would start to see a tiny sliver of hope it would turn on alternattiva voters like there’s no tomorrow. It has happened before and it will go on happening with the timing of a swiss clock (did I say both swiss and clock in one phrase?) so long as the current rules of the game apply. Potential AD voters are targeted and accused of being irresponsible or of not knowing how to work out the math because it is obvious that if AD did not exist they would be voting anything but the dangerous, dangerous labour. But that is not the point is it? Here is what you should be thinking.

PLPN don’t own your vote

It’s the whole point of a campaign. At the start of a campaign it is assumed that no party has a guaranteed vote. It is supposed to earn them  with its proposals and plans. It is supposed to convince you. So to begin with your vote is not owned by anyone. If you chose to vote AD then no other party “loses” votes since it did not have them in the first place. Only arrogant parties who believe that the world is divided between partisan hotheads and “switchers” (the new floaters) believe that votes are “lost”. Voting AD means sending out a number of messages. It means that you have seen what the party has to offer and that you believe that you are best represented in parliament by that party.

It’s not about governance stupid

Oh. They will tell you that one of the two main parties needs a clear majority to be able to govern with stability. You are irresponsible if you let AD get in the way of the stability. But what does stability mean currently? It means that the PLPN can “govern” for five years and steamroller over the minority. Remember we had a relative majority government – 49% of the people for the last five years. That government failed to change the laws relating to electoral representation notwithstanding the fact that it had used and abused the flaws of representation last time round. Yes, five years back we had the same issues – party flag waving opinion columnists accused ad voters of setting themselves up as objects of hate right before voting in the stable government of JPO (number one in Bidnija), Franco Debono and Jesmond Mugliett. We were told then (remember Dudu?) that we should give priority to keeping Sant out then the PN would magically reform the electoral nonsense and give the world a fairer system. Ha!

Five years on

Voting AD is a statement. A positive one. It has nothing to do with tribal politics and everything to do with it. Right now AD carries the sole responsibility of being the third alternative. Ideally you would be voting AD because you found their proposals convincing. Another reason would be your refusal to be an accomplice to the PLPN hegemony – and that is becoming an important reason too. This campaign has shown us more than ever the true colours of the PLPN. Both parties are deeply indebted to wider circles of power prominent among which are the business community. They are parties that can shrug off a quarter of a million load as though it was everyday business, they deal in bartering and they seem to be inexplicably able to fund multi-millionaire campaigns.

You might have an inbuilt sympathy for one of the two parties that might come from an upbringing within a partisan milieu – the kind that the Labour Courage video tried to tap – but that does not make you a nationalist or labourite. It might help you find it easier not to vote for one of the parties and a little less easier not to vote for another. It’s a bad habit though nothing more. Remember nobody owns your vote. Your vote needs to be deserved. It cannot be won over on the eve of an election with the usual fear-mongering.

You reflected. You saw the rot that the PLPN have given us and the rot they are promising to propagate. You chose to vote AD and are determined to vote AD come election day. Nobody is losing your vote. Your vote goes towards making history. Towards change.

Nivvota AD. Ghax ma nibzax minnek.