Australian Election Scheduled For Yom Kippur

inn ^ | 1//30/13 | Rachel Hirshfeld

[Nachum]

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stunned constituents on Wednesday by announcing that national elections will be held on September 14.

Gillard, who holds power by a narrow margin and is trailing in the polls behind the conservative opposition, broke from the country’s tradition of revealing election dates only a few weeks in advance.

While Gillard’s surprising announcement aimed at ending political uncertainty surrounding her struggling minority government, she sparked outrage within the Jewish community, as September 14 falls out on Yom Kippur—the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

[BenLurkin]

She has already shown that she is a real piece of “work”. This just cements it.

[JimRed]

Two words: absentee ballots.

If the Aussies have ‘em, that is.

[The_Reader_David]

September 14 is also for Latins and New Calendar Orthodox, the Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross (to give it the longer title we favor in the East).

I wouldn’t be surprised if Gillard did this just to slight Jews and Christians by making them disturb their observances by voting (voting being compulsory in Australia, so suppressing turn out among Jews and traditional Christians is *not* the motivation for the scheduling).