>>One thing is clear, no country or organization in any *democratic* >>election will go out and count the registered voters ( N ) and then claim >>a "vote" to be valid when less than 1% of N casts a ballot. Let's look at >>an absurd case. The Government of The United States of America could hold >>an election and determine a new president with the votes of only ten >>people if only those ten were seen to cast a valid ballot. Is that >>reasonable? Hardly. > > I think you're wrong.
okay > I know of no country who has a threshold on the number of votes; the > reason is simple: must the current governemnt stay when not enough people > vote? No, terms end and even if only one person votes he gets to decide > the new government. That is correct but it is not called democracry. It is called fascism. > Ballot initiatives are different; and there they typically have a > threshold. I believe that that threshold should be set on the "winning" > party. E.g., some countries require a certain turnout, say 50%,but > then you can have outcomes like: > > 50-0 You win > 25.1-24.9 You win > 25.1-24.8 You lose (nothing changes) > 49-0 You lose (nothing changes) > > others require a certain percentage in favor of a ballot initiative > (say 30%) > 30-29 You win > 30-0 You win > > I believe the second mechanism is better because a boycot cannot be > used as a weapon by the losing party. (ANd, indeed, it would be better > not to vote rather than voting NO) > >>Speaking clearly here, I think the vote we have in hand now indicates a >>choice. It is now the task of the newly elected OGB to either call for a >>new vote with clearly expressed terms and decision logic, OR simply >> accept >>the directive already expressed by nearly 50% of the voting population. > > Well, there's a rule and the rule is perhaps not very well thought out > but that is the rule. > That sort of thinking is called "Bureaucracy" and it is why companies like GM go bankrupt and why countries collapse. I will not adopt that party line for anyone. -- Dennis Clarke sig du jour : "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.", Winston Churchill
