Elections 27-M

Yesterday were the local elections in the majority of Spain. I wasn't overly interested in it as everyone knew that things in Madrid were unlikely to change. Indeed they did not. I was more annoyed by the mind-numbingly boring presentation of the election results. At one point they even had the Vice President of the government come out to read the results. She went through each political party and the number of votes won, the percentage of votes won, and the number of representatives won (for the regional governments). Let me tell you. It was better than counting sheep. "Partido Socialista Obrero Español, con siete milliones, setecientos siete mil, ciento treintinueve votos, un trenticuatro coma noventa porciento en porcentaje, y no se cuantos consejales." And that was just one party. I think there were like 6 or more. I think a better idea would be for them to get some children to sing out the election results just like el Gordo de Navidad (check out the link for info and video - thanks to NotesfromSpain).

One thing that did impress me was that the voter turnout was around 64%! And that was down 4% from the last elections. I think the 2004 presidential elections in the US saw about 40% turnout. Pretty shameful in comparison. A lot of Spanish people complain that the parties are all the same and nothing ever changes. The same complaints that you hear in the US. But at least the Spanish people still get out and vote.