From Suffrage to Donkey Vote

Last Saturday night I found myself glued to the television as I watched Election 2010: The Nations Decides on Channel 9.

I’ve never been overly interested in politics, but I had the feeling that this election was an important one and the banter between our former treasurer, two morning show hosts a political expert and some random wannabe’s was highly entertaining.

But it got me to thinking. We are actually incredibly privileged to live in a country where we can hold a democratic election. We are lucky to have the right to vote.

In the UK Roman Catholics were denied the right to vote until 1829.  As late as the 19th Century only the wealthy were allowed to vote in many Western democracies.

African-Americans fought vehemently during the Civil Rights movement for their right to vote. Australian Aboriginals were not allowed to vote until 1968.   

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, women the world over campaigned for suffrage.   3,000 women took to the streets of London in 1907 to advocate their cause.  A cause which some of these women died for. 

And today, in 2010 it astounds me there are people that don’t bother enrolling to vote, that people would cast a donkey vote or informal vote in protest.  That in countries such as the USA and the UK, voting is not compulsory. 

For hundreds of years people of all backgrounds protested the right to vote. And for them, I am proud to have been able to cast my vote in Australia’s Federal Election last Saturday.