Voting Day

[The_Vulcan]

Had a peek on what the blogroll had on the elections, the chester veedee-yoh on synapses almost convinced me to vote EFF, cause Agang is run by dictators and well Malema really needs help paying his tax…

On the other hand, lennymaysay says we’ll all get prizes like food parcels and official ANC merchandise if we vote for them and that the DA is totally boring for you know, being logical and all, he also says Agang is like the black DA, of course others say the DA is the SA Tory party…

So who do I vote for?

The Dagga Party or Kenny Kunene?

;D ;D ;D

Of the 200 registered parties, 152 are national parties and most don’t even have their own website
There are plenty of Christian parties and even some Musliim ones

How many of these registered parties actually have seats or will even appear on the ballot paper?

why som many

[brianvds]

The party I wanted to vote for isn’t in the running, so I’m staying home in a huff. I have decided to become an anarchist. I’ll spend the day painting.

[Tweefo]

I will vote for the opposition, whoever that may be. The strongest opposition party until we have two more or less equally strong parties, then I will vote for the third strongest. My reasoning is that democracy can only work well with strong opposing voices. Good ideas will go through but bad ones will not get an automatic rubber stamp (information bill).

[Mintaka]

@Tweefo post:3

I will vote for the opposition, whoever that may be.

Can’t be done. You will only know who the opposition is after you have voted, at which stage it will be to late to vote for them. Unless you guessed right.

Rigil

[brianvds]

@Tweefo post:3

I will vote for the opposition, whoever that may be. The strongest opposition party until we have two more or less equally strong parties, then I will vote for the third strongest. My reasoning is that democracy can only work well with strong opposing voices. Good ideas will go through but bad ones will not get an automatic rubber stamp (information bill).

What with South Africa’s ethnic, linguistic and political diversity, I think we will in any event soon have a situation where no one single party will ever govern again, and we’ll have one ineffectual coalition government after the other. And that’s probably a good thing.

[Tweefo]

@Rigil Kent post:4

@Tweefo post:3

I will vote for the opposition, whoever that may be.

Can’t be done. You will only know who the opposition is after you have voted, at which stage it will be to late to vote for them. Unless you guessed right.

Rigil

I work on the previous election’s figures. 5 Years out of date, I know, but better than nothing.

[Mintaka]

Ah, I see. Fair enough.

At the university where I am taking a course at the moment (it’s NMMU), the following poll question was posted on the electronic student portal:

Will you be voting in the upcoming elections? Of the 1,375 respondents to date,

56.8% said yes,
35.3% said no,
7.9% doesn’t know.

I was surprised that so many mostly young Eastern Cape people have so little interest in things political. I saw an ad on the TV last night where Wimpy promises you a free cup of coffee on presentation of your mutilated thumb. This may go some way in boosting interest in our democratic process. Coffee is one of the few things for which I am willing to queue.

Rigil

[Brian]

mebbe i’m just old fashioned: I have voted many times in my life but always based on principle: not on promises, opposition % etc…in other words I have a look at the values espoused by the leaders (like Helen Suzman with the Progs many decades ago) and vote according to my conscience (albeit subjective). ???

[The_Vulcan]

Of the 200 registered parties, only 45 have listed candidates. What exactly is the definition of a party in the IEC’s mind? I just filtered for registered parties and got the magic number of 200 (20 pages of 10 parties each) But making up the 200 parties is a couple of double or even triple entries of the same party, making it registered twice, also the former DP (now DA) also shows up as “registered” all this just to make up the pretty number 200

Of the parties that listed candidates the DA has the most candidates, having 829 total candidates, beating the ANC’s candidate list by 4 people. The EFF has 814 candidates and AGANG only 394. The “party” with the least amount of candidates is the KISS party with only 1 candidates, being a national candidate nogal.

Then there’s parties like BUSHBUCKRIDGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION who has 53 candidates, of which 23 are national candidates

And does about every church denomination have its own party? From the “registered” party list it makes me really wonder…

Anyone care to explain the difference between national, regional and provincial candidates, especially in the context of why/how for example a local residents association put out so many national candidates and for the love of god, please tell me why the IEC even has so many parties registered?

Pity the Dagga party haven’t put forward any candidates, shame guess they got high

[Tweefo]

@Brian post:8

mebbe i’m just old fashioned: I have voted many times in my life but always based on principle: not on promises, opposition % etc…in other words I have a look at the values espoused by the leaders (like Helen Suzman with the Progs many decades ago) and vote according to my conscience (albeit subjective). ???

Call me cynical but I do not trust any of them. With all that power, once they have it, they will use it to help themselves first, then their party and lastly the “people”. I see it as my duty to let them get as little of it as possible.

[The_Vulcan]

@Tweefo post:10

@Brian post:8

mebbe i’m just old fashioned: I have voted many times in my life but always based on principle: not on promises, opposition % etc…in other words I have a look at the values espoused by the leaders (like Helen Suzman with the Progs many decades ago) and vote according to my conscience (albeit subjective). ???

Call me cynical but I do not trust any of them. With all that power, once they have it, they will use it to help themselves first, then their party and lastly the “people”. I see it as my duty to let them get as little of it as possible.

“It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

Douglas Adams

I just love the way he said things…

Yeah I hear you, it’s not like we don’t know who’s going to win, democracy is like free will and manipulation, people are predictable and change is always slow…

[BoogieMonster]

I recall an American friend who “confessed” to voting for Bush jr.

After the fact, and after it became amply clear GWB was a moron, I heckled him about it and all he had to say was: “Did you see the other guy?!”

To me this is just democracy in a nutshell. You vote for the guy who sucks the least.

[brianvds]

@The Vulcan post:11

“It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

Douglas Adams

I just love the way he said things.

I have posted this before, but this is one of the cleverest things he ever said, in which he displays unique insight into the nature of modern democracies, where people are increasingly inclined to vote tactically instead of according to their conscience:

http://futurismic.com/2011/05/11/douglas-adams-on-representative-democracy/

And then there is H.L. Mencken:

“Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.”

[Brian]

And then there is H.L. Mencken:

“Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.”

don’t quite agree with that. My issue is with the word “worship”. When i vote I idealistically wish for change as I always seem to vote for the minority guys. Worship them?? no ways. However, the BIG MAN syndrome which is so sickeningly evident in Africa where the pictures of the “BIG MAN” is hung in every conceivable public space is to vomit on. SA has also fallen foul of this false form of worship and it’s quite amazing how quickly the pecking order pics change when so-n-so falls out of favour!!!

Getting back to Mencken’s statement above…if democracy is a form of worship what is/was Mao dse Dongs’ (sic) dictatorship? or Hitlerism or fascist Mussolini etc, ??

[brianvds]

@Brian post:14

Getting back to Mencken’s statement above…if democracy is a form of worship what is/was Mao dse Dongs’ (sic) dictatorship? or Hitlerism or fascist Mussolini etc, ??

Fundamentalism? ;D

[Hermes]

@Brian post:8

I have voted many times in my life but always based on principle: not on promises, opposition % etc…in other words I have a look at the values espoused by the leaders (like Helen Suzman with the Progs many decades ago) and vote according to my conscience (albeit subjective). ???

If only all voters followed your sound approach, we would automatically have good politicians.

[Brian]

yeh…Hermes and therein lies the rub…it is said that a country deserves the government it gets (do we?) and also that there is no such thing as a “good government”… (wtf!!)

[The_Vulcan]

@EWN

EASTERN CAPE – Two hotspots have been identified by Eastern Cape police ahead of the elections.

Police in the province said additional members will be deployed to Molteno and Sterkspruit.

Sterkspruit has been plagued by pre-election tension.

The police’s Sibongile Soci said officers will be out in their numbers.

“All hot spot areas in our province will be closely monitored and additional forces have been placed on standby in those areas to ensure that we have enough forces to deal with any contingencies or crisis that may require our intervention.”

Pre-election violence has already flared up in the Sterkspruit.

Early on Monday morning, a school hall, which was to be used as a voting station, was torched.

So they’re tired of bad service delivery and maladministration and they want to change this by not voting?

Now the burning of tyres and destroying property I understand, because yes, violence is always the answer when you don’t like something, right? (wtf!!)

[The_Vulcan]

Just had a heated argument on not forcing someone to vote, IMO you just can’t force another adult to vote or not, it’s a choice not an obligation.

Just what do you call the fallacy that if you don’t vote, it automatically counts for the majority?

It was said that if you don’t vote, you automatically vote ANC, I called bullshit on this and then he explained that if 10 people vote And 50% vote ANC and the other DA, then if one of the DA don’t vote, you give your vote to the ANC, I only conceded that in such a case, yes the ANC would win in that specific “if” scenario.

However I countered that what if that person (now we weren’t talking about that if situation anymore, moved on since that, this crazy idea still persisted) didn’t vote, and he would have voted ANC, he still votes ANC, and then I was scolded for having a thick head, because of course now that counts for the DA! HA! I persisted that no, because it doesn’t count and the majority still wins, so by his definition, he still voted ANC even if he didn’t vote, then I was told I don’t understand politics and that I have a thick skull.

I am voting btw, but I disagreed with the person trying to force someone to go to the voting station.

And I disagree that by not voting, you automatically vote for the ANC, surely there must be a fallacy named for this, fallacy of composition perhaps?

Edit: I kept saying that it just doesn’t count and that that person should then just not complain about politics then, see I didn’t add this, but this was still in huge disagreement, the other guy kept saying it counts ANC… Just pre-empting this obvious response

[Mintaka]

Yes, an un-casted vote obviously can’t count either way.