I found this factual analysis interesting:
"What has distorted the result was the much larger numbers abstaining
this time round. In January 37% did not vote, while this time it was
43.5% and of those who went to the polling stations 2.5% cast a blank
vote. Thus the total not casting a vote was 46%, almost half the
population. We should not forget that according to Article 51 of the
Greek Constitution “The exercise of the right to vote is compulsory”. It
is in spite of this legal obligation that almost half the population
refused to vote. This shows the depth of disappointment among a wide
layer of the electorate.
"Back in January some right-wing commentators, in an attempt to
belittle the then SYRIZA result, pointed out that it was 36% of the 63%
who voted, making it less than 23% of the electorate. That was when
SYRIZA stood on the Thessaloniki programme of reforms and presented
itself as an anti-Troika, anti-memorandum, anti-austerity programme. If
we applied the same logic today, we would have to say that 35.46% of 54%
means only 19.14% of the electorate voted for SYRIZA this time.
Furthermore, those parties who voted in favour of the new Memorandum on
July 20th lost a total of 1.1 million votes."
-->
http://www.marxist.com/greece-syriza-wins-elections-but-this-is-no-mandate-for-austerity.htm
The fact that Popular Unity was not able to pass the 3% threshold for
representation in Parliament was not a result I expected, nor had the
published polls. It is hard for me to discuss an explanation: while
being a wholly new formation without a track record, I'd also need to
know more of the character of its campaign.
Paul Zarembka
--
==== */Research in Political Economy/
<http://www.emeraldinsight.com/books.htm?issn=0161-7230>* (since 1977) |
Editor's *webpage <http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/%7Ezarembka>*
/*Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy*/ (2015), R. Desai, ed.
/*Sraffa and Althusser Reconsidered; Neoliberalism Advancing*/ (2014)
/*Contradictions: Finance, Greed, and Labor Unequally Paid*/ (2013)
/*The Hidden History of 9-11
<http://catalog.sevenstories.com/products/hidden-history-of-911>*/ (2nd
ed., Seven Stories Press)
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