Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1491702
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 FEBRUARY 2023 OPINION 10 Raphael Vassallo OPINION Mandatory voting, in Malta? But… WHY?! YOU'VE got to hand it to Evar- ist Bartolo, though. There aren't that many politicians who can still somehow manage to sur- prise me, at a pinch… even after having closely observed them in action (in Bartolo's case, I inter- viewed him at least three times) for the better part of the last 30 years. And yet, there the former Ed- ucation Minister was – on the TVM talk-show 'Popolin', last Monday – arguing that: "I know it's controversial, but the time has come to discuss whether voting should be made… MAN- DATORY" [my emphasis]. Erm… sorry to repeat a ques- tion I only just asked in the headline, but: why is that, ex- actly? And, I don't just mean: "Why should we even contem- plate such a hare-brained pro- posal, in the first place?"; nor, 'Why should 'mandatory voting' even be on the agenda at all: in a country which still boasts by far the highest voter turn-out, any- where in Europe; or indeed, the entire democratic world?" [Note: Malta's turn-out at the last elec- tion – 88% – was roughly equal to that of Australia in 2014: even if Australia has 'mandatory vot- ing', and we don't.] No, I also meant: why NOW? Why does Evarist Bartolo in- clude that tell-tale proviso, 'the time has come'… as if to suggest that there has been some kind of development, in recent years, that makes it somehow imper- ative to actually force Maltese voters out to the polls, against their own will… at (the equiva- lent of) GUNPOINT, no less?! Well, Bartolo's own answer to that question was that: a) There was a drop of around 60,000 voters, at the last election (which he himself attributes to the fact that "people are disil- lusioned with their party, but aren't ready to vote for the other party"); b) "Voting isn't only a respon- sibility but a duty, particularly since we're on a trend where more and more people don't want to vote"; and c) "More people not voting means the political parties will be more comfortable simply pleasing their fanatics…" And it is this answer, more than the proposal itself (which, to be fair, has been raised by other people apart from Bartolo, over the years), that surprised me the most. For on a certain level: I can more or less understand how politicians like Evarist Bartolo – who, let's face it, depend ex- clusively on 'voter-participation in elections', for their own po- litical advancement – would be disconcerted, by what can only be described as an unprecedent- ed (by local standards) decline in voter turn-out. After all, the reaction would be exactly the same in any com- parable 'non-political' scenario, too. If a commercial establish- ment – let's say, a supermarket – were to lose a sizeable chunk of its own client-base: not to any rival competitor, or anything… but simply because its own prod- ucts were considered so utterly awful (and the same goes for all other supermarkets, too) that around 60,000 of Malta's entire consumer-population decided to just 'stop shopping at super- markets', altogether … Well, yeah: it kind of figures, doesn't it, that not just the own- er of said supermarket – but the entire local retail sector, across the board – would be somewhat slightly 'concerned' (possibly, even to the extent of taking some truly drastic measures, to re-in- still all that 'lost customer-con- fidence')? Then again, however: not even the most unscrupulous, exploit- ative and rapacious commer- cial operator I can think of (and believe me: I can think of quite a few) would ever respond to those circumstances, by simply 'demanding national legisla- tion' – as a matter of urgency, if you please – that would compel those 60,000 disgruntled cus- tomers to just 'go back out shop- ping, like the dutiful consumers they're supposed to be' (or face fines, and possibly even pris- on-sentences, if they refuse to comply.) Leaving aside that it would se- riously (but SERIOUSLY) skew the entire 'free-market' foun- dations, upon which our entire economic model is supposed to be built: resulting in a situation where nothing resembling 'free competition' could possibly even exist, anymore (for the simple reason that 'free competition', in and of itself, also requires the ex- istence of something called 'free choice'…) But never mind all that, be- cause: the accompanying reason- ing is already 'skewed' enough, as it is. In a nutshell, Bartolo seems to be arguing that: because "peo- ple are disillusioned with their party, but aren't ready to vote for the other party"… it's not the Far from 'political parties becoming more comfortable simply pleasing their fanatics', a further drop in voter-participation is arguably the only thing that can even happen, in this country, to finally convince those two parties of the need to actually 'transform themselves', into something more 'deserving of the electorate's trust'