A " Civilized " Election !

We are just days away from a Federal election and it is most likely that the result will be known before midnight chimes next Saturday night.  Immediately the poll closes in the eastern states the counting of votes begins and millions of Australians will be glued to their television screens as patterns emerge.

The leaders of the parties contesting the election will eventually emerge to either claim victory or to concede defeat and it is inconceivable that Scott Morrison or Bill Shorten will refuse to accept the result as is the outcome likely in other countries embracing the democratic voting system.

The people of our near neighbour - Indonesia - have recently been to the polls and with such a massive population the vote count is taking almost a month to fully tally.  Indonesia has been a democracy for just twenty-one years and its population is spread over a vast archipelago of islands.  The contest is between the incumbent president,  Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto.   The preliminary results indicate 67.6 million votes for Joko compared with 52.6 million for Prabowo.  It seems likely the challenger fell short by between 8 and 10 percent.

A situation similar to Indonesia's 2014 election is emerging.  Prabowo was the challenger in that election and on election day he claimed to have achieved sixty-two percent of the vote even before the first vote was counted.  This victory claim had his supporters rioting in the streets and it was weeks before the police restored order.  Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim country and religion takes a dominant position in how its citizens cast their vote.

The outcome of this Indonesian election is of more than passing interest to Australia.  Joko has ruled with a policy of religious tolerance while Prabowo is a military general with hard lines Islamic views which came to the fore during the campaign. A Prabowo presidency would put strains on the emerging defence ties between the two countries.

It is also election time in the worlds biggest democracy.     More than a billion voters in India are about to decide whether Narendra Modi deserves another term in office.   Once again, religion is at the centre of this election as Modi tries to elevate the Hindu religion to dominance by both decree and the imposition of supporting law.

India is so large and so populous that this election is staged in phases over several months.  In a country so enmeshed in poverty vote buying is endemic but even so the hold of democracy is such that a vote that reflects the will of the people is expected to emerge.  India and China share a common border and these two Asian power houses seem destined to dominate world trade if India can attain the manufacturing dominance that has emerged in China.  It is interesting that their forms of government is the exact opposite of each other.

By comparison, this election in Australia is expected to be a very civilized affair.  Come Saturday the voters will dutifully troop off to the polling stations and cast their vote and in a matter of hours the outcome will be known.  One side will celebrate victory and the other will lament that the decision was not in their favour.   What all will  appreciate is that elections in Australia do not involve bloodshed - as is the outcome in many parts of this world.