Ah...the irony of life. Not being 21 yet until August, I was not eligible to vote in my own country, and in any case the chances are that the value of my vote would be watered down by gerrymandering, phantom voters and other shenanigans (in any case, my constituency, Seputeh, is a DAP stronghold, so I don't think the opposition needs my vote there!). So, imagine my surprise a couple of months ago, when I received a polling card to vote in the regional elections here in London!

My initial reaction was to throw the thing away (and I did), because I simply could not believe that I, a temporary student in this country, had the power of the vote. As the polling date approached, what I read from the newspapers confirmed the impossible: I am eligible to vote for the mayor of London, the local council members AND the member of the European Parliament (MEP). And what's more, the pot's been boiling like never before. Tony Blair's Labour party (which got landslide votes previously) is suffering from Tony's Iraq policies, and the main opposition Conservative party is ALSO suffering because they supported Iraq, and add to that the emergence of high-profile splinter parties from both the left (Respect) and right (British National Party and UK Independence Party), the plot is REALLY thick this time round. With such split votes and a potentially low voter turnout, each vote counts for more than ever before.

This morning, despite my polling card languishing in a rubbish dump somewhere, I walked to the local polling centre (which was just a few minutes' walk away), told the people running it my name and address (they had my name in a list), and they handed me the ballot papers without even asking me for ID! Being the pinky weak-hearted liberal that I am, I obviously voted for the left leaning parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens (I split my votes for them more or less randomly between the different seats up for grabs). I did however vote for Ken Livingstone, the Labour candidate for London mayor, because he was anti-war and has been doing a good job as the incumbent.

Anyway, I fly tomorrow for the US. Surprisingly, I'm not excited about this prospect, considering that I'm usually quite worked-up before I travel. Will keep this updated when I get internet access over there.