By Antonis Anzoletou

Abstention in the last election was a new negative post-colonial record and should be a cause for thought for the political system. About 788,000 voters decided not to go to the polls again. In total, 47.16% of the citizens who were registered in the lists did not go to the polling station.

In simple words, one in two Greeks did not find the reason to vote for the next government. The new “losses” were largely due to the fatigue brought to the body by the simple analog. They went the first time to vote knowing that there is no possibility of a strong or weak majority.

Summer and seasonal work played a catalytic role. It cost SYRIZA seriously the change of the electoral system and its faith in allied governments following North-West standards. For this reason, the data indicate that compared to May, 21.5% of those who had voted for SYRIZA chose not to go to the polls again. For ND the corresponding percentage moved to 12.3%, for PASOK to 8.7% and for KKE to 6%.

The total percentage of abstention, however, has many causes that require special attention and introspection from the factions. The pre-election period did not move in any programmatic context. The citizens were little informed about the plans of the parties and mostly witnessed fights and mutual accusations.

There was no renewal of the political staff in all the parties and a stereotypical discourse prevailed that did not give any vision to the citizens and any alternative plan. For the second ballots, it is obvious that the fact that there was no cross of preference, i.e. interest in a certain candidate, also played a big role.

Voters only had to deal with policies, which, as it turns out, do not excite them. A typical example is Florina, who showed the greatest abstinence. It reached 66.76%. It is a fact that especially in the region people are interested in voting for local MPs and even the post-mayors would hardly decide to travel with the list. Abstention reached 62.48% in Kefalonia, 61.37% in Evrytania and 61% in Laconia. Lesvos completes the “top 5” with 57.67%.

Were things better in the political system almost twenty years ago? Possibly not, but a few years after the loss or withdrawal of major political figures from the limelight voters were still looking for their new footing. The revelation of new scandals followed, the financial crisis, the memoranda and the citizens turned their gaze away from politics.

Maybe in the 80s and 90s the participation in the elections exceeded 80%, but even in the 2000s the schools were filled with people on the days of the popular verdict. In March 2004, September 2007 and October 2009, 76.5%, 74.2% and 70.9% turned out respectively. Participation began to decline from May 2012 (65.1%) until June 2012 when it reached 62.5%. After the previous Sunday, the second worst negative record was recorded in September 2015 with abstention reaching 43.8% and the third in July 2019 (42.2%).

It is obvious that the party formations must delve much deeper into the causes of abstinence. Any force that can genuinely reach out to the electorate, touch them emotionally and convince disenchanted voters will be able to make a difference. It is a Greek paradox that the electoral rolls are not up to date, but this does not diminish the fact that more than 4.5 million Greek citizens preferred to do something else last Sunday than to exercise their right to vote.