Politicians to blame for voter apathy

Now that the local body elections are all but ended, commentators and analysts are already proposing new solutions to the problem of low average nationwide voter turn-out, including electronic voting ( Low vote ‘due to lack of issues’, Oct 14). Yes, local issues (or the lack thereof) can have a big impact on the number of votes cast, and apathy towards voting hasn’t been helped in Wellington by asking voters to select five district health board candidates from a list of 23, based purely on a paragraph in election material.

However, the main reason for voter apathy – and this applies to national as well as local body elections – is that during the previous term in office, elected members regularly depart from the will of the people, often putting self-interest first. This is no more highlighted by our current prime minister vowing that the results of an upcoming referendum will be ignored no matter what the result. Light rail for Wellington seems to be heading in the same direction.

There’ll never be a high voter turn-out till politicians end up truly representing the wishes of the people who vote them in. NOEL HALL Mornington

One obvious clue is in the annual TomTom international traffic congestion index. Wellington’s delay per hour of driving at peak time is 37 minutes. This is easily the worst in the data for a city-region of fewer than 500,000 people. It’s worse than almost all cities 10 times the size. Comparable American cities come in under 10 minutes. They build roads to cope with ‘‘growth’’. PHILIP G HAYWARD

Naenae