BIRMINGHAM

A RIDICULOUSLY LOW turnout of 28.6% in the Greater Manchester, and 29.8% in the West Midlands, mayoral elections, in England, has commentators asking how low does voter turnout need to be before an election is declared unsafe.

“Over 70% of voters didn’t bother to engage, these are not mandates, they’re boycotts,” argues political scientist Professor Davitt Parnell of the Pyongyang School of Democratic Majesty. “Indeed, with these figures, we have passed from protest into absurdity. At what point does a democracy cease to function for sheer lack of engagement?”

Professor Parnell, whose book Rule by Clique was banned in many western countries, said that soon only a handful of electors will decide elections, and they will be representative only of themselves. “I can see a day when political elections will be like company annual general meetings, with millions of proxy votes controlled by self-interested cliques. This is not a sign of rising powerlessness among the population, it is a collapse of faith in the system. It reminds one of the coyote in that old Road Runner cartoon, continuing to run well after he has left the cliff face behind.”

And no, 40% turnout in London was not good either.