An indifferent and outdated electoral race
Following two national elections and a noisy change of leadership at SYRIZA, no one seemed particularly interested in Sunday’s race for local government. With the exception of the multitude of candidates who bombarded us with texts, emails and messages on social media – ruthlessly violating our privacy – no one seemed to really care.
The way that elections are organized and carried out by the Interior Ministry and the courts is simply paleolithic
The indifference of so many voters was evident from the turnout, which barely passed 50% and was eight points down from 2019, actually raising a question of legitimacy. It was also evident in the fact that the results maintained the status quo. In most constituencies and regions, good and bad mayors, and good and bad governors, maintained the advantage over their rivals, even when they had failed miserably in their role. Greek Communist Party (KKE) supporters turned up, so it gained more from the low turnout than any other party in the opposition. SYRIZA is watching its power slowly disappear as Stefanos Kasselakis seems unable to give it a boost, or even a breath, even for the short term, while PASOK confirmed that it has local staying power because mechanisms do and the governing New Democracy party remains at the top because it controls almost all of the regions and major municipalities.
However, these local elections, which made such a negligible mark and will soon be forgotten, are an opportunity to bring up a very serious issue. The way that elections are organized and carried out by the Interior Ministry and the courts is simply paleolithic. It suffers from the same ailments as the digitization of the state. More and more services may be going online, but half of them are useless, come at a huge cost and generate more red tape. The same goes with the elections: For example, the lawyers overseeing the process send the results via their tablets but then have to execute a series of insane actions required by the procedural handbook. Two-thirds of the paperwork they produce (much of it in two, three or even four carbon copies) between Saturday and Monday morning is entirely useless.
Even the system of voting is terrible, as every voter realizes when they see the massive ballots containing more than a hundred names. This is not to mention the ridiculous procedures at the voting booth, or the well-intentioned citizens who turn up to do their duty when they are picked for election duty only to end up working for 20 hours straight. And let’s not even get into the state that schools are left in after serving as polling stations or the enormous waste of money from paying civil servants to work the extra time.
It is time, therefore, to start examining the possibilities offered by technology. We could experiment with hybrid voting methods and take advantage of the ground gained with digitization. Sure, it’s not easy to change an election system that has been around for a century, but it is certainly worth making the effort.
Aristides Hatzis is a professor of philosophy of law and theory of institutions at the University of Athens.
