Democracy & Elections

Democracy & Elections

Despite the fact that democracy is not just about elections stuff but it is something more than that. The purity of democracy has not been fully understood by the Pakistani nation. In democracy, poor’s have more rights than rich ones as they are in majority and the will of the majority is supreme.

But we only relate democracy to the right of vote, but it is freedom of speech too. We cannot deny the fact that elections process has tremendous affects in a democratic environment as it is the key to magnificent democracy. In democracy an individual has the right to opt their candidate liberally under the supervision of the unbiased government.

In a civilized environment it is the right of an individual to vote in a free environment that is free from any pressure and fair in every manner. This right has been declared in Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is stated in the Article 21 under the constitution of Pakistan that “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives... The will of people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”

The basic ingredients to fair elections that are practiced at international level in an ideal environment are that they should be conducted at regular intervals, should be pure as water and privacy to that should not be marked with any irregularities. By regular intervals it means that there should be a particular time frame for that can be either after 4 or 5 years. In here, government of Pakistan rule over 5 years. By purity it means that they should be free and fair by giving equal rights to everyone whether poor or rich or whether living in a rural or urban area. By marking the privacy with no irregularities means that there should be participation in election at maximum level that should be easy to understand, voter registration guide should be provided to the citizens in order to aware them by the process and rules and the eligibility criteria should be bare with minimum lawful restrictions like of age, proof of identity, residence and so on.  The privacy to elections also meant by the principle of secret ballot papers, which make sure that no one except the voter knows the candidate to whom he/she is voting.

This intent to resist fear or any act of vengeance by those who are in power in society either through their political background, administration or financial status.

Question is that which society will make sure these ingredients are the part of their election process?

For all this there should be a strong urge to have an impartial, self governing and sovereign establishment enjoying the reliance of their citizens and political parties. In Pakistan, where its people have faced long periods of dictatorship, the basic ingredient to election process have always been fiddled by the one who are in power to have results according to their desire.

Such attempts have made their people to go down with their trust in the electoral process as well as in democracy too.