Adonis Diaries

Does your vote count? Is voting a civic duty? They vote for what in Islamic States?

Do you know of any election won by a single vote? By a hundred votes?

How if you know that most elections are won by at least 20% margin, would you still go to the election booth?

If a survey claims that your favorite candidate is favored by 10,000 votes margin, would you still join the long line of voters?

Actually, what people say to poll takers are not what they will end up voting for: public image is different from personal inclination, and many candidates were surprised how they won by such a small margin when polls favored them by a huge margin…

If you are convinced that an election law is utterly biased and unfair either to the majority of the population or to the minorities, would you consider voting on the ground of civic duty?

For example, if the election laws are tailor-made to favor sectarian composition and you are a secular citizen, would you elected a sectarian candidates among the other sectarian candidates just so you think voting is a civic duty?

Do you think dropping a “blank” voting ballot would be construed as an opposition vote against the current political system or regime?

If only 30% of the eligible voters participated in the “democratic” process because the other 70% refused to take seriously enough the election laws or the programs of the candidates, would you consider the elected person representative of the population or just representing the political system?

What should be the rate of participation among the eligible voters for the process to be admitted as good enough democratic representation?

For example, Switzerland boasted to be a highly civic duty State by the high voting turnover rates for any kind of election. The tide has turned downward, as in many European States, and Switzerland initiated the mail-in ballot: Citizens automatically received a ballot in the mail, for all kinds of elections, under the hypothesis that this easy and comfortable incentive would jump up the voting rate…Mail-in ballot was a disastrous decision since even fewer voters felt any civic duty to vote.

It turned out that voters in small communities and in neighborhoods make the effort to go to voting booths in order to show off that they are citizens of good civic duty standards…Remove this social or community factor and any substantial financial incentives (bribes) and democracy will fizzle: Civic duty is meant to be seen and recognized by the community and not based on any abstract moral entity.

I recall a municipal election a couple of years ago.  Three lists of candidates were vying to win and none of them ever contacted me, not even with a phone call.  One list might have taken me for granted on a “clannish” or family ground.  None of the lists were that serious and programs were disseminated a couple of days before election date, just to sounding serious…

I decided in retaliation to delay voting until an hour before closing time: I knew all candidates keep track of who has yet to show up.  My best friend and cousin got upset because I didn’t vote yet, and called me and expressed his displeasure.  Although I voted on “civic ground”, which didn’t help in patching up chattered friendship, I knew later that the right thing was not to vote at all.  I got my revenge by publishing the event and venting out my anger on this Tarbouch, Ghenbaz and Sherwal election…Although, I doubt that anyone ever read my post…

Democracy needs to be constantly nurtured by civic engagement for equitable and fair election laws. tax laws, anti-discrimination laws, health and safety laws in the workplace… Once communities relinquish their responsibilities for active engagement, democracy becomes a huge farce and not a panacea for every social ill…

They vote for what in Islamic States?  Particularly when religious parties grab power?

All Islamic political parties call themselves “party of Justice“. And I wonder: “Justice in the eyes of Allah or for other human being? Is Charia (religious laws) instituted by one man or by the community of citizens?

Is Justice valid for all times and all societies or justice tailor-made by communities as time changes and value changes…?”

Can you show me a single State, where an Islamic sect is in majority, an Islamic political party ever lost an election, once democratic election laws permitted voting?

For example, Iran, Turkey, now Tunisia, and soon Egypt…

Isn’t democracy the possibility of turning over power to opposition parties (secular parties in this instance)?

Does the concept of democracy has any meaning when laws are believed to be generated from a God?

Note: You may read on a working democracy https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/who-is-responsible-for-a-working-democratic-system/