In about two weeks from now there will be elections to the European Parliament. As Estonia is a part of the European Union and I am an Estonian citizen, I will vote as well to choose six representatives to the Parliament from my homeland. Although I am in Norway, Estonia is one of the few countries in the world (the only one?) which has introduced an option of national e-elections. I am going to use my electronic ID card plugged in to the computer, insert my personal passwords and give a digital signature for a political party that I prefer.
"Nothing depends on me anyway", "Politics is a dirty game", "They all are self-serving idiots out there in parliament", - quite often one can hear such opinions. And... people don't vote.
Why do I vote?
1. This is the purest expression of democracy. I have a choice. I have a right to vote. My choice matters. Huge amounts of people around the world don't have this privilege. I cannot allow myself not to use this privilege.
2. It is one of the fewest opportunities to express my political view, to give a vote for ideology that is consistent with my personal values.
3. I am a definite fan of the European Union. Entering the EU was in my opinion the best thing that happened to Estonia after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Estonia got into the context of European values and democratic principles, it got to actually contribute to European affairs. The EU project is very unique in the world - with its level of mutual agreements (which are anyway hard to achieve), with its freedoms to move, to sell, to work, to study abroad, with mutual dialogue. I can be confident that the war between the EU states is unimaginable - the latter is actually enough for me to be a definite supporter of a common European project.
I found a really great website which helps the European Union citizens to define their political views and correlate them to the parties that they can vote for (and to all other parties in the EU for curiosity): www.euprofiler.eu. I advise to go through this evaluation for everyone who is thinking about the voting.
