VOTING IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3094, 18 January 1909, Page 4

VOTING IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

The surroundings of the ballot-box in English and colonial elections can by no stretch of imagination be called impressive, or even picturesque. This is one of the things they manage better in Constantinople. Mr Charles Hands, the special correspondent of the London "Daily Mai!," who witnessed the first election under the new Turkish Constitution, confesses to a liking for Turkish electioneering. "Jn mosques under nobly proportioned domes, with views throughvistas of columns of interlacing arches of coloured marbles and hanging lamps of brass and exquisitely designed soft-coloured prayer rugs, the vote does not seem to make its mean appeal to the petty individual interests of each selfish man," he remarks. "It is exalted and dignified by its surroundings and becomse a ceremony, almost a sacrament. Without excitement, but with solemnity, the old Turk drops through the slit of the ballot-box his vote for committee ot electors who are to elect the parliamentary representatives. The voting papers \yere'distributed among the electors, who might fill them up where they pleased, in the mosque, in a coffeehouse, or at home. When the voter came to deposit his paper in the ballot-box, he produced his identification passport, which every Turk carries, and an official checked his name on the roll, and stamped his passport to prevent his voting again. An old Hadji, who had made the sacred pilgrimage, said very earnestly, "In the name of God," as he dropped his paper into the box, and Mr Hands noticed the lips of other voters moving as they recorded their votes, doubtless to similarly pious effect. It was all very quiet, very orderly, very serious, and citizen-like and responsible.