FILLING IN THE BLANKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 147, 22 June 1923, Page 4

FILLING IN THE BLANKS.

Turkey is rapidly becoming Westernised under the enterprising rule of Mustapha Kemal Pasha. Having adopted the forms of democratic rule, with Parliaments, universal suffrage, and ballot-boxes, the Kcmalitcs set about making their calling and election sure. The Turkish language is difficult to read and write, and few there be that attempt it. Intending voters were handed a blank sheet of paper on which they were asked to write the names of any other than Kcmalist candidates for whom they desired to vote. These sheets were for the most part handed in blank, for the Turk had not even learnt to make his mark. The returning officer took the blank to mean that there were no such candidates for whom the free and enlightened voter wished to vote. He therefore handed the voter a printed slip on which were the names of the Kcmalist candidates, and this printed slip was duly placed in the ballot-box as being the free and considered vote of Turkish democracy. It is not unlikely that some people will see in this novel method of electoral reform, and representation proportioned to the intellectual calibre of the electors, some faint suggestion of the gambols of the famous Angora goat. After all, the elections may turn out quite, as well as elections in more enlightened lands and conducted on more approved lines. The candidates will probably be truly representative of the electorate, and that is more than can be. said of a system under which a Ministry may hold office with a minority vote of the electors behind it. The Turkish method has the merit of simplicity, and must make the work of the returning officer easier. It gives the veneer of democracy to autocracy, and this veneer is not unknown in other lands.