What Happens If I Register To Vote But Don't Vote

After hearing the likes of Russell Brand and the Sidikiwe Campaign, I decided to actually do some digging and find out what exactly happens if I don't vote on the 7 May 2014 in Southward Africa's "20 Years of Freedom" Elections. Which I will now relay to y'all.

And then for the purposes of this explanation let us assume that you are i of 100 people in South Africa, all of whom can vote. You take just turned 18 (or come out of some long hibernation) and are now faced with the option to vote or not to vote. In Due south Africa this is an interesting case considering our leading political party, the ANC, concur a large majority of the votes. Let us assume that it is 65%. And so 65 of the 100 people will vote ANC no matter what you do.

(Notation I have simplified the system for allocating votes, in truth information technology is a little more than complex, for a full explanation please visit http://electionresources.org/za/organisation/#2004)

If you vote (but not for the ANC):

65/100 = 65%

The ANC will Receive 65% of the votes and 65% of the seats on the National Assembly.

If you don't vote:

65/99 = 65,66%

The ANC will Receive 65,66% of the votes and 65,66% of the seats on the National Assembly.

If you vote for the ANC:

66/100 = 66%

The ANC volition receive 66% of the votes and 66% of the seats on the National Assembly.

And so what does this mean? It ways (absurdly) that not voting is still voting. An abstained vote counts effectively as 66% of a vote for the ANC instead of a full 100% of a vote for or confronting them. You may argue that the this is fine considering if you lot don't vote the other 34% of your vote volition become to the opposing party and balance everything out, but the truth is that there is no real opposing political party. The 34% from your vote will be split amongst the 28 opposing parties and count very little, unless they all join together (which they will not). For every two people who chose not to vote the ANC has gained more than ane unmarried vote. And then at the stop of the day if you chose "non to vote" y'all are voting for the ANC. Just with less vigor than if yous had ticked the ballot paper yourself.

This example is not that far off reality, last elections the ANC received 65,9% of the votes, the next highest was the DA with 16,7%. (http://electionresources.org/za/provinces.php?election=2009).

The reason this matter is then important is because a two thirds majority of the National Assembly is needed to meliorate our Constitution (s74(ii) The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa). The president of the ANC has signaled that if they get the majority they need he will change the constitution (http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Concerns-over-Zumas-set on-on-Constitution-20140110). However fifty-fifty if this were non the case it is never a practiced idea to requite ane party too much ability. I don't think there is a unmarried example where such a state of affairs has turned out in the favor of the people. We have the near progressive constitution in the world, if you want proof type information technology into Google, information technology would be a bad idea to give anyone even the gamble to accept that abroad from united states.

To those of y'all who are considering spoiling your vote in that location is some good news. They practice tally up the spoiled votes, in 2009 ane,3% of all election papers were spoiled. The bad news however is that it counts the same every bit not voting, someone just counts them, and then they are removed from the voting pool. All this does is signal to the ruling party, and to the land, that people are unhappy. Information technology poses no solution. Perhaps one day someone will be sitting at their computer, and when they encounter that number of spoiled ballots they volition rising up and start the party that you have been waiting for, a political party that truly represents y'all! The problem is notwithstanding that we are running out of time, every spoiled ballot is 66% of a vote (more actually) towards the ANC. They demand 66,67% of the votes to modify the constitution, in 2009 they got 65,9%. We are continuing on a knife edge. And if we sideslip the bloodied hands of the people really chaining our great constitution is just a shade darker than those of the people who allowed it to happen. Make sure are not ane of them.