Missing from the General Election campaign discourse is an indication by the 35 per cent of the electorate, which ritualistically stays away from voting, that it is likely to come out on Monday to contribute to the election of a government as a statement of belief in the system of democracy.
As previously highlighted in this space, the two major parties have not really given sufficient reasons for the traditional voting electorate to move beyond the normal rationale of turning out to support either the People’s National Movement (PNM) or the United National Congress (UNC).
This is because the platform speeches and displays have been designed to create hype rather than being a solid set of rational reasons for the electorate, outside of the home bases, to make informed choices.
Three days away from the poll, it’s quite a stretch to imagine that the major parties will adopt a more progressive method of campaigning in the interest of the entire nation, as opposed to narrow group desires.
It has been easily observable in this campaign that platform speakers have been free to preach the impossible, as they are assured that the attendees to meetings are there not to hear solid, verifiable information and ideas on how the parties and their leaders will counter and overcome the major problems of the economy and crime. Instead, party supporters attend meetings to display fawning devotion to party leaders and spokespersons on the platforms.
Unfortunately, those kinds of political campaign attitudes and behaviours will continue to allow for a smaller than required majority to become the government. It used to be popular to heap scorn on 30 per cent governments; they are now the norm.
The decision of qualified electors to “stay away” is legal and the right of each individual to adopt. However, what the disinterest in voting does is to hand over the franchise, which the ancestors of the nation risked their lives to acquire decades ago, to those with vested interests inside and outside of the major parties.
The right and responsibility to vote is too precious for such attitudes and behaviours to continue to prevail.
What the stranglehold on the electorate by the PNM and UNC, with their version of political campaigning, has also done is to serve as a disincentive to the possibility of the emergence of a viable third force; so much so that the minor parties and aggregations feel they have little choice but to throw in their votes with one of the majors.
Alternatively, another of the possibilities of a large turnout is that citizens can elect a government with the kind of overall majority which will then give it the moral legitimacy to govern and not merely because of having scraped past the required majority in the House of Representatives.
The need, therefore, is for eligible voters to participate in the election and so move the percentage up from the 60s to 85 and 90 per cent of those duly registered to elect a government. The message—go out and vote.
