Moar elections!

Much like a promise to lower taxes, a call for more democracy is a cheap tactic for winning votes, yet one that, in what seems to be a continuing trend, the Conservative party have managed to completely cock up.

For those of youwho don’t know, last Thursday saw England and Wales’ first election for the new role of Police and Crime Commissioners for each regional police force. These representatives rank higher than chief constables, and are to be the accountable public face of the police. If you’re wondering why you hadn’t heard about this, it’s partially because we don’t get the choice in London: May’s election decided that Boris will continue being ours – I’m sure that’ll have you sleeping at ease tonight!

The picture is little better outside of the capital. With an average turnout of 15%, this is the UK’s worst ever election in peace time. David Cameron puts this down to it being a new role, and people’s lack of understanding about what a PCC does. An inquiry is being launched; however, both of these show the Tories gracefully ignoring the elephant in the room: their utter failure to inform the public and publicise the elections.

Few people were aware that the PCC role had been created, and fewer still knew when the election would be – I and several of my friends were only reminded by a Facebook status. Those who were willing to vote had very little information about the specifics of the role and the candidates – the election’s official website and that of the Home Office are both wonderfully vague about what powers and tasks a PCC has, talking about “being accountable” and “invoking the voice of the public.”

“Voter apathy” is the explanation being touted by the media, but there’s something deeper at work here. “On November 15th,” read the adverts, “criminals will hope you do nothing” – a hilariously self-aware campaign, given the circumstances. Apparently, one shouldn’t assume malice when incompetence will provide an adequate explanation, but even if the government isn’t wilfully stifling democracy, between this and the AV referendum they can now look back and claim that the public doesn’t want to vote – something that does not bode well for the future.

What can we learn from the election results? Out of the 41 police force regions, 16 were won by the Conservatives, 13 by Labour and 12 by independent candidates. The Liberal Democrat’s death knell was rung at the last local elections, and this is merely another nail in the coffin, but the high independent result is indicative of voters’ dissatisfaction with all party politics. The rate of spoilt votes was extremely high at around 3%. This isn’t mere voter apathy, but voter opposition: people simply do not want elected officials running the police. With this in mind, perhaps it’s not so surprising that the election was so poorly advertised.

Whether by choice, or more likely by incompetence, the government are rapidly destroying the public’s confidence in the democratic process. A look at the candidates paints another troubling picture: they’re exclusively rich, older white people, most likely elected by their own kind. With their failure to win voters by one of the easiest tricks in the book – allowing them more control and democracy – the Tories now have little left but to hope that the general elections see only rich, older white people going to the polling booths if they’re to survive for another term.