What is the price of a vote? (corruption, democracy, local Split elections)

How much does a vote cost?

How much power does a single water droplet own?

 

 

Dobriša Cesarić the Croatian poet illustrated the answer,  in his well known piece, The Water fall: (roughly translated by yours truly)

 

So flows, flows the water fall,

what significance has my little droplet to it all?

 

Look, a rainbow in the water is created

It sparkles and vibrates in thousands of coloures

For that colour dream to shine in the waterfall

My little droplet is essential to weave it together

Yesterday during the festival day celebrating Split's park forest Marjan , the Croatian conservative party HDZ and Andro Krstulović Opara  their candidate for the mayor of Split, where actually shopping for votes from citizens!

 

Some Conservative men, like shady dealers, where pulling out cash from their jackets,  and offering passers by 100 kuna bills in return for their promise to vote for Opara!

 

Hundred kuna(10 british pounds)! I got a hundred quid! Free hundred quid, maybe some did think , why not, Id vote for that money, not giving it more thought. But what will that vote , cost the individual who had sold it , in the future?

 

If  Opara gets elected, how will he spend the tax money, taken out of the earnings of that man who sold his vote, every month? What kind of man even attempts to buy your vote?

 

 What is the price of my vote? To have a right to vote, my ancestors had to fight so that I am born free, and not a slave or peasent to feudal lands. They fought so that I may be raised in a democracy and can choose a leader instead of having to accept a leader by his birth right. My parents generation raised in a one party communist land, went trough war, and made certain that no one will force  me to vote for just one, power, that  of the dictator. Women of this century have succeded in having their voice and vote validated, and for it to have effect on politics. 

 

 

One by one vote, creates a group, creates a movement, creates inertia, creates a majority.

 

You cannot buy my vote for a 100 kuna  Opara. My vote costs a lot more, it is worth many lives. It is worth my right to freedom. My vote and voice can be gained like most good things, only for free.