Underwhelming turnout fuels fresh debate over compulsory voting in Scotland |
Just about everyone predicted it – the low turnout (53.87%) at the Scottish Parliamentary election on the 7th May. And once again, the number of voters who did not vote in the first past the post ballot, was greater that the numbers voting for the winning party. Arguably the abstainers won again!
I’m sure those good people who tirelessly campaigned for the creation of a Scottish Parliament must be shaking their heads in disbelief. The low turnout cannot be because Holyrood is unimportant – it is legally responsible for a huge range of services that underpin our society. It also can’t be because it has limited funds to spend. This year it will spend £68 billion.
Explanations for the low turnout this time have ranged from the electorate being bored by the lack lustre performance of the political parties and their leaders. I’ve also heard it said that some voters who did not vote actually wanted to send a message to all politicians – “a plague on all your houses.”
Rather than add to such speculations, let’s look at the figures. The population of Scotland is currently 5.55 million and within that there are around 900,000 in the 0 – 15 age group – only 16 are entitled to vote. So, we have a potential voters pool of 4.65 million. Of this only 4.2........