Who gets my vote?

By Michiel Rovers on 27 February 2011

Coming up: the provincial elections. On March 2, I again have to decide who gets my vote and especially why. Right now I am a true undecided voter. For that reason I am looking for the politician and the party that is able to convince me. So for the last few weeks I’ve been looking on Twitter and television to find the most reliable politician and party.

1. What do I get from the political tweets?

Because this is about provincial elections, I especially look how politicians present themselves in the province of Utrecht. In my search for the main topics concerning the elections in Utrecht I found #kiesjouwutrecht (#chooseyourUtrecht) on Twitter. My first acquaintance with the content experts in my province, I thought. But unfortunately, little substantive statements can be found. #chooseyourUtrecht shows a group of people with different political backgrounds and statements. A perfect start for a debate about the important subjects in Utrecht you would think? Wrong! The tweets are mainly dealing about the campaign itself instead of the world after the elections. For instance: “zelfs in het Wilhelminapark plakken de partijen over elkaar heen. Nu weer de Dieren over het CDA. Tis een harde strijd” or “vanmiddag 14u spreekt Leon de Wit (#16) bij debat JongstLeden, de jonge ambtenaren van provincie Utrecht”. I really don’t care what is happening in the park or what Leon de Wit is doing. Who is Leon de Wit anyway?

I need information about what each party stands for. Luckily the province of Utrecht puts its own information on Twitter concerning the elections, for instance: “Provinciale Staten voor Dummies http://tinyurl.com/6bqkz2h” en “hoe de verschillende politieke partijen willen voorkomen dat Utrecht dichtslibt. http://tinyurl.com/6knf8hb”. Through these tweets voters can get an opinion about the main issues in their province. It’s a shame that these valuable tweets are a minority.

The National Broadcast Association (NOS) has tried to guide the voters through the great wide web of political tweets by selecting only the tweets from leading candidates from the provinces. Unfortunately, this selection doesn’t make a clear distinction possible between the political parties. This is no fault of the NOS, but the way of twittering by the politicians. Again, no content can be found, for instance: . “Erg leuk met Surinaamse ouderen + @gerbenhorst in t provinciehuis. Nu gauw naar bezoek v Stas. Marlies Veldhuijzen-vZanten” or “I.v.m. de aanleg Hanzelijn moet ik vandaag eerst met de bus naar Almere en daarna met de trein naar Utrecht. Ik ga naar het GL partijbureau”. This is not the way to win votes. The majority of the electorate doesn’t know why he or she has to vote. Therefore the need for information is large. Twitter should be used to lead the voter to the right kind of information: objective and neutral.

2. What do I get from the debates on television and radio?

Just like earlier campaigns debates are an important part of these elections. Only the national politicians can be heard, not to mention the fans who sit and scream through every word their hero has to say. Very annoying. In the three debates I saw and heard last week only national issues were discussed: the economy, education, security and integration. After each debate the same question could be asked: what do we have to vote in relation to our own province?

I suggest that each debate is focused on one subject. Subjects that are important in each province are for instance infrastructure, youth healthcare and spatial planning. These debates should be conducted by politicians from the province. Not only to make their faces get more familiar to the public, but also to make the differences between parties on important issues clearer.

What each party and politician in Utrecht stands for is still a mystery to me. So I just consulted stemwijzer.nl. Result: D66. Why they get my vote and who will get my vote? I really don’t know!

tagged with: elections, politicians, twitter, social media

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