Today is election day in Sweden. About 6,8 million people out of a total 9 million people are allowed to vote. Usually we have great turn-out, somewhere between 80-90% or so.
When we go to vote we get to vote for 3 different areas. One is the general government that sits in Stockholm - our Washington DC. The ballot is yellow. The Blue ballot is for our province sort of the US state government and the white ballot is for the city council. You get 3 envelopes to put your ballots in and hand to the election officals.
There are several polling stations. In the area we live there are about 4 within a three block radius that we know of. Representatives from the different parties stand outside the pollingstations handing out ballots with their partynames on. Inside the doors you can find all the ballots for the different parties along with blank ones… just in case you do not like any party.
We have 7 larger parties. Three are “left-leaning” and would join together to gain a majority while the rest are “right-leaning” and would join together to gain a majority.
maxima said,
September 17, 2006 at 8:13 pm
and do you have to put up with all the crap on TV like we do before the election?
How long before you know who the winners are?
Mirjam said,
September 18, 2006 at 12:56 am
The winners were announced at around 10-11 pm last night. It goes really fast compared to the US. Though this year it was really really close so we had to wait until a bit after 10pm usually we know at or just before 10 pm. Remember… we only have one time-zone so all pollingstations close at the same time!
maxima said,
September 19, 2006 at 8:06 pm
So,did you win?
Mirjam said,
September 20, 2006 at 1:37 am
Very loaded question Maxima. Specially an election that was this close. People are either very very happy or very very depressed right now.
The winner was what they call the alliance. It is the Swedish version of the righties, though it should not be confused with the Republicans! The alliance is the four right winged parites that now will form a government. It is the first time since 1994 that we have someone other than the socialdemocracy party reign. Before 1991 it was in the mid 70s that the righties had the reign. Most people would say… it is good to stir the pot and make some changes. Others would say that we needed to get rid of the current prime minister and chairperson for the social party who now resigned from both positions. That is all the debating I dare to do here!
maxima said,
September 20, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Well, for everyone who is depressed, you could point out what it is like to live with George W Bush as acting president(yes, he just acts at it)
I have the final episode of West Wing taped and I can’t bring myself to watch it. You see, I am still able to pretend that President Bartlet is still in charge. A man of moral character, backbone to be able to do what is needed and right, and a man with the intelligence to be able to sort through problems as they arise for our country.
How can I give that up for dubya.
Our TV broke, so I really don’t have to see dubya at all. (big smile here)