Politicians & their supporting media types do not know when to keep their dangerous comments to themselves!

There’s nothing more basic in our democracy as the processes that underpin the election of our governments. At the time of writing , the WA Senate election has become  complicated, not just because of the necessary recount given the closeness of the first results, but because of the unfortunate event whereby by about 1,400 previously counted votes have been misplaced.

The concern is that so may politicians and journalists have offered their not so learned and very biased comments on the whole event. Here’s a very typically bad example of all this crap being circulated in the media.

All the parties have an interest in the outcomes and it would be ethical if all current parties simply said that they are waiting for the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to work its way through the processes to deal with this very unusual event.

It is simple really. Something has gone wrong. Lost voted is a serious matter. It is not a political issue. So let’s all let the commission do its work. The commission itself has set up an independent investigation. This is no time for the quick shot to score a headline.

However too many simple-minded commentators, such as Gerard Henderson, as well as the usual suspects in politics, have come out with criticisms of the AEC, its chief commissioner or the whole electoral process.

This level of interference could potentially be one of the more serious breaches of the democratic processes whereby elected politicians and their camp followers are spreading misinformation and biased points of view that must lead to the general public loosing faith in Australia’s electoral system.

Something that remains world-class and the basis of our political democratic system needs to be safe-guarded not maligned. We all saw that over the last few years how gullible the electorate can be whereby simple throw away lines, with little or no basis in fact, became the headlines and then the reality for too many.

Anthony Green has supplied his usual factual information on this event – it is worth a read.

and then go and have a nice cup of tea and come back when the AEC and/or the high court has sorted this out.