Sunday, March 09, 2008

Election day


A few months back, Michelle, the mayor's secretary, asked us if we wanted to be on the electoral register. It turns out that we can only vote in the local elections and for our European Member of Parliament. We cannot vote in our canton election which also takes place today nor the national party elections which took place last year. It seems strange to have such a widely split voting right but there you go. Anyway, we got our voting cards in the post the other day and set off after lunch to cast our vote.

We had a choice of two potential mayors and their teams. The incumbent, William, and his new team of councillors and his challenger and his team. Whoever wins will sit for six years. Your voting card, which you keep, is stamped each time you vote so that you have a permanent record of your voting activity. There was no political basis for your vote, you vote for people not parties. Quite different to what we were used to in England. On the other hand the cantonale vote was for individuals with party affiliations. There's more detail here about how it all works.

No comments: