Municipal elections in Denmark recently concluded.
Elections in Denmark is far different from the elections in India.
What is the significance of Danish municipal elections?
Municipal elections in Denmark are the only public Danish elections in which non-citizens can vote.
If one permanently settles in Denmark but have not taken a Danish passport, he can still vote in the municipal elections.
There won’t be any aggressive party workers or policemen around polling booths during the elections.
A far greater number of aspiring municipal politicians in Denmark seem much younger than nation-level politicians.
Most of the contestants are around their twenties and thirties, there is a significant difference of age between aspirants for municipal positions and those who contest national or State-equivalent elections.
It makes good sense for an aspiring young person to pass through municipal politics, and, if she distinguishes herself, to be moved on to State and national levels.
What India needs to learn from this municipal election?
In India, there is a difference that signifies a movement up the party-political hierarchy, a gathering of experience and testing of capabilities.
Younger candidates, when they appear, tend to pop up right at the top level of State or national politics in India.
Indian politics, is not tied as much to experience and performance, but it is tied to other factors such as ‘connections and privilege’.
The reason why younger candidates seem to pop up at senior political levels in India, rather than at the municipal levels, is an indication of this.
In India,people with influence won’t need a real political expertise, not have to cultivated any local franchise, and not needed to prove oneself at a smaller scale to get into a top political hierarchy.
