Votes without voters

"The interesting thing about the parliamentary elections is not the percentages attained by the parties, but voter turnout", writes the Süddeutsche Zeitng. "Only 39.26 percent of those eligible to vote actually cast their ballot, the lowest turnout since the overthrow of the communist dictator Ceausescu 19 years ago. This means that almost two thirds of all citizens are so annoyed with the new system that they refuse to make use of their most elementary democratic right. It would be hard for voters to give their politicians a worse show of confidence. ... Unfortunately this was only to be expected after the horror story that the political class has played out for us over the past years."

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