Well the election is over and it's another term for Tony Blair and Labour.
We'll keep you posted with the abstention statistics.

Are you sick of the current state of British politics?
Do you want to vote but think all the parties are as bad as each other?
Do your really want your voice heard?

If so follow the advice in Abstain05 and see how you can register your vote and feelings without voting for a candidate!

In the first instance this site is designed to encourage as many people to the polls on 5th May 2005. Voting is very important not least because many people died in wars, spoke out and defied the establishment of the day to bring about and preserve universal suffrage. It is your right and you should exercise it!

But......... many people today complain that the representatives of the parties and independent candidates offer them no choice at all! A constant refrain from many of the electorate is that they no longer trust any of the parties or the politicians they spawn.

Who can blame them? In an age when it appears that politicians are more interested in self-preservation than the interests of the people they represent it is no wonder there is widespread disillusionment with the political process. Manifestos are written but then largely torn-up by the victorious party, promises made and broken. As a result trust in the system is faltering badly.

One symptom of this is that over the past elections turnout has declined steadily. In 2001 less than 60% of the electorate bothered, a post-war low, and predictions are for an even lower turnout this time around.

Well you can by spoiling your paper or, as we like to call it, abstaining! By doing this you are taking part in the process and exercising your right to vote on one hand but on the other telling the politicians exactly what you think of them!

This site is here to tell you how to do it!

Ballot papers are usually only counted for a particular candidate if a mark, normally a cross, appears conclusively in the box on the right-hand margin against their name. Any other action will normally result in a spoilt paper or, if this is done deliberately, an abstention vote.

Here is your chance to make a protest vote without actually voting for a candidate!

You have two options to register an abstention: Put a cross against more than one candidate Actually mark the paper with text which expresses your view

The first option means that you have exercised your voting right but your vote will not be counted for any particular candidate. In effect you have abstained and sent a message to the politicians that you cannot decide between them, which for most will be taken as the voter expressing his or her indifference towards any of them!

If you want to really make your mark, however, the second suggestion is the best option. Marking the ballot paper can be done in various ways including writing what you want the politicians to hear on the ballot paper at the polling booth. If you do this you may want to write out what you would like to say first so that at the ballot box it is only a matter of clearly transcribing this onto the ballot paper.

The better option though is to produce a sticky label which you can simply slap on the centre of the paper at the polling booth.

One set of words may be:

Another may be simply:

If you have a postal vote then the sky is the limit really as you'll have all the time in the world to write your comments or use the sticker option as required!

This site has a forum on which you might want to discuss over the next few weeks what you will be doing and if you are deciding to abstain, how you will be doing it and what form of words you may want to use.

We would welcome your views on this subject - Use the message board!

Use your vote on 5th May
Tell the politicians what you think of them!
ABSTAIN!