pl
Non-Aligned
Posts: 998 
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Post by pl on Nov 17, 2020 11:36:03 GMT
Ms.Sandu would have won also without any of the 260.000 DiasporaVotes:  I'm all in favour of the citizen diaspora being allowed to vote in election (both in the UK and in general), but the fact they made up almost a third of all votes looks quite alarming and even dangerous. It's quite easy to see a situation where a candidate loses internal voters by some margin, but wins overall using the vote of the diaspora.
The Irish have the same problem. 3m overseas Irish, and a resident population of 6.8m. If they left non-resident nationals vote, who knows what would happen. |
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johng
Labour
Posts: 1,683
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Post by johng on Nov 17, 2020 12:57:08 GMT
I'm all in favour of the citizen diaspora being allowed to vote in election (both in the UK and in general), but the fact they made up almost a third of all votes looks quite alarming and even dangerous. It's quite easy to see a situation where a candidate loses internal voters by some margin, but wins overall using the vote of the diaspora.
The Irish have the same problem. 3m overseas Irish, and a resident population of 6.8m. If they left non-resident nationals vote, who knows what would happen. It's certainly a tough one.
There are moves in Ireland to allow overseas citizens to vote in the presidential election which would require a constitutional amendment. Though the president is essentially powerless and is a mere figurehead.
I can also see the advantage in countries with large diasporas to have overseas constituencies like they do in Italy.
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pl
Non-Aligned
Posts: 998
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Post by pl on Nov 17, 2020 13:48:23 GMT
The Irish have the same problem. 3m overseas Irish, and a resident population of 6.8m. If they left non-resident nationals vote, who knows what would happen. It's certainly a tough one.
There are moves in Ireland to allow overseas citizens to vote in the presidential election which would require a constitutional amendment. Though the president is essentially powerless and is a mere figurehead.
I can also see the advantage in countries with large diasporas to have overseas constituencies like they do in Italy.
I think there are two factors which are important here: 1. Nationality laws: Ireland and Italy both have large diasporas, but they are also VERY generous with nationality and passports. The UK, by contrast, also has a very large diaspora but it much less generous with passports, and in some cases is a couple of generations further back than the likes of Ireland and Italy. 2. Whether the diaspora is in tune with the electorate in the home country. Irish Americans, for instance, are often quite, ahem, "Romantic" about their views of Ireland. |
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Georg Ebner
Non-Aligned
Roman-romantic-reactionary Catholic
Posts: 6,042
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Post by Georg Ebner on Nov 18, 2020 22:36:32 GMT
The UK, by contrast, also has a very large diaspora but it much less generous with passports, and in some cases is a couple of generations further back Yes, with PassPorts - but allowing CommonWealth-students to vote is very generous. |
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finsobruce
Labour
Five people have watched this in the last hour.
Posts: 31,169
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Post by finsobruce on Nov 18, 2020 22:44:32 GMT
The UK, by contrast, also has a very large diaspora but it much less generous with passports, and in some cases is a couple of generations further back Yes, with PassPorts - but allowing CommonWealth-students to vote is very generous. Not just students - or do you mean citizens? |
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Georg Ebner
Non-Aligned
Roman-romantic-reactionary Catholic
Posts: 6,042
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Post by Georg Ebner on Nov 20, 2020 1:07:22 GMT
Yes, with PassPorts - but allowing CommonWealth-students to vote is very generous. Not just students - or do you mean citizens? Oh - is it even every CommonWealth- citizen? I knew it only from students. |
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
Posts: 7,834
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Post by J.G.Harston on Nov 20, 2020 9:48:31 GMT
Not just students - or do you mean citizens? Oh - is it even every CommonWealth- citizen? I knew it only from students. Oh yes, the Empire hasn't gone away donchaknow. They may all have their fancy little parish council parliaments and their funny little flags, but they're really all still British, we just let them think they're foreign countries. |
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Post by John Chanin on Nov 20, 2020 10:15:19 GMT
There are 2 logical positions. One is that all citizens can vote wherever they live (there are different methods for organizing this) and no non-citizens can vote. The other is that all residents, that is those living in the country with an unqualified right to do so, can vote, but non-residents cannot. The UK typically is muddled. It has moved from a position closer to the second option to one closer to the first for parliamentary elections while doing the opposite for local elections.
This is one of many areas in Britain much in need of reform.
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Post by kvasir on Nov 20, 2020 10:19:50 GMT
There are 2 logical positions. One is that all citizens can vote wherever they live (there are different methods for organizing this) and no non-citizens can vote. The other is that all residents, that is those living in the country with an unqualified right to do so, can vote, but non-residents cannot. The UK typically is muddled. It has moved from a position closer to the second option to one closer to the first for parliamentary elections while doing the opposite for local elections. This is one of many areas in Britain much in need of reform. I don't see why a logical position cannot be that only resident citizens can vote, or that both all citizens regardless of residency status and all residents regardless of citizenship can vote. In part that comes down to how you view the purpose of the franchise but I don't think either of those positions are inherently illogical. |
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Nov 22, 2020 17:40:16 GMT
Note that almost no-one in Transdnistria bothered to vote. It shouldn't even really be part of Moldova, it was a wheeze of Stalin's to dilute the ethnic homogeneity of the Moldavian SSR after he'd stolen Bessarabia from pre-war Romania. A fair few of those. Kaliningrad was essentially settled in such a way as to ethnically cleanse Lithuanians from their ancestral territories, ensure loyalty to Moscow, and annoy the Poles. After murdering or deporting the Germans of course. |
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