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 | | Tuesday, 24 July, 2001, 10:24 GMT 11:24 UK Effort to reverse voter apathy  The political process has not enthused everyone The Electoral Commission has made a number of recommendations to help combat voter apathy following the record low turnout at the 2001 general election. The commission's first report includes a number of key suggestions in an attempt to engage disaffected voters with the political process. While it argues voting should be made easier and more user friendly. The commission says responsibility ultimately rests with politicians. The 2001 election saw an all-time turnout low of 59%. The commission's Scottish spokesman Sir Neil Mackintosh said telephone and internet voting were two of the many possibilities currently being explored. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Sir Neil said the situation north of the Border was very worrying for all those concerned with UK politics as a whole.
"Generally the commission wants to find out why? We know what the questions are and we know about the problems - but we have to research this," he said. Sir Neil said the issue was far more complex than simply that people believed a second Labour landslide meant there was little reason for them to cast their vote. "Particularly when you look at the 18-24 age group, then the turnout was actually below 40%, while the 60-75 age group totalled about 70%. "So there are clear issues about engagement about the political process." 'Enter the debate' He said the lead up to the Scottish parliamentary elections of 2003 will be of greater importance north of the Border in terms of voter turnout. Sir Neil said the riots which accompanied the G8 Summit in Genoa were a cause for concern and an illustration of single-issue protest manifesting itself into sustained violence. "I think people are becoming broadly disengaged with the wider political scene. We intend to review election broadcasting as a priority. "I think the political parities themselves are stopping to consider the effectiveness of their political broadcasting and the commission wants to enter that debate. We want to see where broadcasting is actually taking us." | |
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