Voting and Nonvoting… What are the reasons?
A few weeks ago elections for the European Parliament (EP) took place – the turnout was the lowest ever. Therefore we joined a seminar about voting and nonvoting. We just wanted to find out why most young people did not vote and what the media do to encourage people to go and vote.
We spoke with Dutch journalist Laurens Boven and with some other people in Berlin (tourists, German people, young and old people). We asked a few questions and wrote a little summary of their answers.
Q. What do you think, who are the nonvoters in your country? Are there any special groups?
Most of peoples said that in their country there are no special groups. People don’t go and vote because they think that the politics is not important. It’s usually low educated people who don’t care about voting and these people think that politicians can’t change their life.
Q. Who is responsible to encourage people to go and vote?
They said that first of all family is really important because if they have traditions, this can influence young people’s attitudes. After that the level of education plays a role and the third thing is religion. But the media impress the world and the people. ???
Q. And what about school?
Laurens Boven: “Yes, school has a big influence, now we have a lot of projects about politics at school to teach children about voting. I think it’s good but most non-voters are between 21 and 25, and at this age a lot of these usually don’t go to school.”
Q. What do you think about the Europien Union (EU)?
People usually think that the EU is a good thing, because they have more possibilities, for example in the economy and in education. But other people said that the EU is not as good because it is too big. Therefore the media play a significant role in the life of the people.
Q. What do young people think about Dutch media?
Laurens Boven: “To be honest, people don’t mind. Politics is not as prominent here as in America. People are interested in the media only before the elections and they listen for just a few minutes. The youngest who are interested identify with a party.”
Q. What would you like to say to a non-voter?
Laurens Boven: “I don’t think non-voters are right to complain, and I think it isn’t good for democracy. In a democracy you do participate, vote to say: I DON’T LIKE YOU (THE POLITICANS) AND I AM NOT HAPPY!”