voter apathy?

[anneasquith]

yesterdays by election , turnout 28.8%, is this an all time low. ?

[jno]

ichkeria, they do it in Australia. Their politicians aren't noticeably better or worse than UK ones.

[cathfromsaron]

i postal vote and never miss!

[ichkeria]

I know it happens in Australia. But it won't happen here. I can't for the life of me see the point of making voting compulsory. Other than the revenue raised from fining the people who don't vote. Which strikes me as rather ridiculous.
As has been pointed out, universal suffrage was a hard-won right, but it doesn't therefore follow that it should be compulsory.

[ichkeria]

A little research shows only 10 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Democratic Republic of the Congo (talk about making life difficult for yourself!), Ecuador, Luxembourg, Nauru, Peru, Singapore and Uruguay enforce compulsory voting in national elections, and of those only Australia, Nauru and Uruguay impose it on everyone. Which suggests, though admittedly not conclusively per se, that it's not the democratic bees knees :-)

[weecalf]

Who was it said about who " He going around stirring up apathy "?