there was an abnormally high number of abstentions.
This is a very positive sign.
Does the radio clip include the number of yes, no and abstentions before the debate as well? A comparison of the two would be particularly interesting.
At my (state) secondary school, we had one debating lesson. We were each assigned a topic and had to pick a side to represent. I had the death penalty and was talking for it. I can't quite remember how I ended up with that, especially as I am against the death penalty.
A vote was taken at the start and everyone in the class was against it. Obviously I didn't put my hand up, but I was too.
By the end, the room was split half-ish still against it and half-ish abstaining.
My arguments were pretty simple. I used the emotional pull of how families' victims get the eye-for-an-eye closure (their loved ones life got cut short, now the perpetrator's is being too) and logic (it should only be used for murderers and when it's beyond doubt and cheaper than keeping murderers in prison). To be clear, I disagreed with what I was saying as I don't think there is ever justification for the state to take a life.
The key thing was that I had sufficiently convinced enough people in the the room (so as to be noticeable) to feel unsure that their previously held certainty still made sense.
For this debate, I suspect that the nonsense coming from Alfonso didn't really help the pro cause much, but putting everything together it sounds like lots of people recognised that it wasn't a simple case of "let's just be allies and support the activists". Even if we don't know what the vote was before the debate, that in itself is significant. The more everyone follows the TRA call to action to "educate yourself", the less the blank cheque of unquestionable allyship.