In connection with the EU elections, a referendum was held in Nynäshamn municipality on how the home service should be run. The vote was carried out after a so-called people’s initiative, when more than ten percent of Nynäshamn municipality’s residents signed the initiative.
Those entitled to vote in Nynäshamn had to decide whether they wanted to keep the new home care organization that had been pushed through.
Counted those who did not go and vote
A total of just over 9,000 people voted, which gave a turnout of 38 percent. A majority, 62.7 percent, voted no and against the will of the moderates.
Just over a quarter, 25.6 percent voted yes and 11 percent voted blankly.
When the Moderates in Nynäshamn, who had already announced that they did not intend to follow the advisory vote, communicated the result, they chose to focus on those who did not vote.
“25 percent of those entitled to vote in the municipality have voted to go back to the old organization of the home service. So 75 percent have not done it,” write the moderates in Nynäshamn on social media.
According to the party, the low turnout reinforced their view of the vote as an “unnecessary waste of money” and meant they had a majority.
The expert: Can’t count those who didn’t vote
Political scientist Ann-Cathrine Jungar at Södertörn University has studied people’s initiatives on behalf of SKR since 2011 and says she has never seen anything like it.
– It is impossible to know the position of those who did not go and vote. You can’t count it as them agreeing, says Jungar.
She also believes that the Moderates’ decision from earlier, that they did not intend to follow the vote, may have affected the turnout.
– Which phase you are in the decision-making process matters for the turnout. Now, you’ve always said that you don’t intend to follow the vote, then it’s even weirder that you get so creative in how you count, says Jungar and adds:
– It’s creative mathematics, I’ve never seen anything like it before.
The moderates: The issue has not engaged
The moderates in Nynäshamn believe that the referendum was unnecessary, and that such a referendum should only be carried out for major decisions concerning the municipality.
– As you really need to listen to what the voters think before a decision is made. Not about a reorganization of this scope where a decision has already been made in the municipal council. We must have confidence in the democratic process in our various bodies, says Marcus Svinhufvud, chairman of the municipal board in Nynäshamn (M).
Marcus Svinhufvud also believes that the residents of Nynäshamn have already voted in the municipal election and elected the municipal council, which has made a decision on the matter.
– It is possible to reason a lot back and forth. If it is 38 percent who have chosen to vote, then the issue has not engaged a majority of those entitled to vote, says Marcus Svinhufvud.
He does not think it is wrong that the Moderates describe it as having a majority – despite the fact that roughly 62 percent voted no in the referendum.
– After all, it is only 25 percent of the municipality’s eligible voters who got involved and showed their desire for the municipality to return to the previously dysfunctional organization and voted no, says Marcus Svinhufvud.