Election Day Guide, Portugal, Peru, Macedonia

Most countries of the world like to vote on a holiday. Some have a national holiday,which seems nice. Most do it on a Sunday. In Britain, of course, our elections are almost always on a Thursday, which might be why we have such bad turn-out rates (around 60%). If anyone can find me an authoritative source for why Thursday, I'd be very interested: I've heard theories that it's because Thursday used to be a customary half-day, or because Friday is payday and it's assumed that Thursday is thus the day that general public are least likely to turn up to the polls drunk.

I will admit that I will be spending my Sunday afternoon with a few beers over a game of Ra in the local arts centre, but I'll also be trying to keep an eye on the election results as they come in.

Logo of the official results

Portugal will probably be easiest; they're on the same time zone as Cardiff, will be putting out provisional results mid-day and will do it all online. Perfect.

Like in a lot of places, polling and campaigning on election day is forbidden (not entirely a bad idea), but the latest numbers seem to have coagulated around a eerily familiar result: The governing centre-left party will probably run in second at around 30%, so the main centre-right opposition will probably form the next government but will have to go into coalition to do it. In the long run this might be good news for the Left, as it means they don't have to be the ones to wield the axe on public spending.

Logo of the election observers

Macedonia may be a little more tricky: They're an hour ahead, but allow Macedonians living overseas to vote, which obviously will take some time counting. On the other hand, it seems very likely that the ruling centre-right will have established an unassailable lead before bedtime.

They are putting out press releases, but they only seem to cover turnout and I don't really understand them, so I guess I'll just keep an eye on the news sources.

Image from flags.net

Peru is a solid five hours behind, and the result is looking unpredictable at this point. Fujimori has a slight lead in the last polls before the end of campaigning, but within the margin of error (not least because 14% say they just can't bear to sign up to either extremist clown. Incidentally, this election is shaping up into a great example of why AV is better than SV.

Fujimori has the edge in the capital and coast, while Humala leads out in the country and mountains; I expect to see a Fujimori lead in the early results, a Humala fightback, and probably going to a recount.

There is an official results page, but I'm having a hell of a time navigating it (not least because so much of their text is actually in jpeg format, therefore making it impervious to automatic translation. Therefore, I'm going to be checking peru.com- though honestly I doubt there'll be much worth reading before breakfast.

Those willing to wait, of course, will see updates posted here and on twitter.