The former Prime Minister of Poland Jaroslaw Kaczynski says that Polish citizens should not be given the option of voting online.
“I am not an enthusiast of a young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it,” Kaczynski said in an interview posted on the Web site of his conservative Law and Justice Party.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Former Prime Minister of Poland
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
He added, “I am not in favor of forcing people to participate in an election or to facilitate the voting process too much. Voting should be a serious conscious act that requires certain effort. Those who want to introduce voting over the Internet want to take that seriousness away. Internet users as a group are particularly easy to influence. It is known who controls the Internet and who uses it. This group is easy to manipulate and to suggest who to vote for.”
Kaczynski is something of a technophobe who does not own a cell phone or have a bank account, and his party has had difficulty appealing to younger voters. Young voters strongly supported the liberal Civic Platform, which won last years elections.
Concerning his comments about online voting, political public relations specialist, Eric Mistewicz said, “The Internet forums exploded with negative comments. This shows that Kaczynski remains in the 19th century while the world has moved forward. It shows why he lost the elections and why people who know who Cicero was and don’t know what Google+Search”>Google is lose.”
