Just not interested

ON THE FOREIGN VOTE
COMMENTING on the municipal elections, your comments ranged from “foreigners - why didn't they vote in force(?)”, to “it's their island, their election.” Voter apathy was a factor across the island not just amongst the foreign community.
In a democracy, the people, i.e. the electorate, decide by whom and how they will be governed - by using the ballot box.
The British resident who “wasn't interested” obviously “wasn't interested” in how his local town hall spent his (taxpayer's) money. That is his choice but I hope he's not the same person who later complains of his town hall “wasting money; not providing this or that; or doing too much of this/that (i.e. building).”

“NO POINT IN COMPLAINING LATER” He, the person who abstained from voting, should remember he had the opportunity to put into power those he thought would best serve his interests. He chose not to do so.

As a “foreigner”, working in a voting station last Sunday, it really was an eye opener to see to what level some people will stoop in order to try to influence the vote. The campaign, island wide, became somewhat sordid - with claims of vote buying, mafia-style bullying tactics, and individual persecution (car tyre slashing, graffiti) - the types of thing usually associated with third (or a Spanish friend said, “fifth”) world countries.

Spain is a relatively young democracy, still learning, but as taxpayers - Spanish or foreign - we have the right to decide how we are governed, and by whom - at the last count this was still a free choice.

M. Irving, Calvia