Freeway - Young Election

Young Election

Recently we have had an experimental election for students in Upper Secondary schools. This article is about that election and the political system in Sweden.

Sweden is a monarchy. Our king is Carl XVI Gustaf. But the Swedish king has no power. His job is only to be a representative of Sweden, visit countries and take part of ceremonial events.

Many people think it's unnecessary with a king in a modern country because he doesn't fill any important function. Many people also dislike it because the Royals inherit their titles, it's not democratic and it's also quite expensive. But if the king has no power, who has?

All the power comes from the people, that's why Sweden is a democracy like most of the countries in Europe. The Parliament is the place where all the decisions are made. In the Parliament there are 349 members. Every member belongs to a party. Every four year they are elected in a general election. Every Swedish citizen who has reached the age of 18 may vote. To become a member in the Parliament you have to be nominated by a political party. If you get enough votes you can be a member of the Parliament. In the Parliament today there are 7 parties. In the election the parties get places in the Parliament depending on how many votes they get in the election. Sweden has a parliamentary system. That means that in order to form a government the party who's going to form it must have support in important issues in the Parliament.
This year, in September, there will be an election for the Parliament. There are many who have reached the age of 18 and will vote for their first time. In April 2002,

Sweden had the world's biggest election on the Internet. 300 000 students from all Swedish upper secondary schools were able to vote for the party they like the most. Then the parties will know how Swedish teenagers think and what they have to change for the real election in September. This is the first time a big election like this is held, so it's only an experiment. The election makes teenagers more

interested in politics and they feel that they can make changes in the society by their vote. If you don't vote and maintain your opinion, you can't complain about things you don't like either.
The Young Election will make the politicians think of what the next generation thinks is important. Swedish students have arranged the ten questions they think are the most important for the election:

The School
Equality
Drugs
Care
Segregation
Animal rights
Crime and punishment
Habitations
Age limits
Shortage of polices

This is a comparison between the real election which was held in 1998 and Young Election 2002:

Percentage of the seats in the Parliament according to the election1998 Percentage of the seats in the Parliament according to Young Election 2002

THE LEFT PARTY 12,3 % 16,4 %

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY 37,5 % 29,3 %

THE GREEN PARTY 4,6 % 10,2 %

THE CENTRE PARTY 5,2 % 6,1%

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS 12 % 5,9 %

THE LIBERAL PARTY 4,6 % 4,8 %

THE MODERATE PARTY 23,2 % 20,1 %

Others 7 %

This shows that there's no big difference between what students think and the results from the last real election. The biggest difference between the two elections is that the parties with more radical opinions, like the Left Party and the Green Party, got more votes. Maybe students wanted to vote for parties who express themselves in clear terms. The majority of the other parties have more general opinions which can sound a little bit too common.
Our conclusion is, even tough the Young Election turned out in this way, that the election this autumn for the Parliament probably will look pretty much the same because the students aren't such a big part of the whole population.
Anyway this experiment has been very instructive for the students. It has made them more interested in politics which is good for a democratic society. Something bad about Young Election tough is that there weren't so many who took the chance to vote, only 34,3 % of the students in the whole country. Hopefully more people will go to the voting-station in September instead and affect their future because it's we who makes the society.

Are young people in your country interested in politics?