MANY of us are found watching TV talk shows, discussing politics for hours, and passing our comments. Politics remains a pretty serious and hot topic in almost every Pakistani house today.
Pointing fingers at politicians seems to be much easier task than physically going to a nearby polling booth and voting for an honest candidate on election day.
Looking at the consecutive years’ polling result sheets from 1971 to 2008 general elections, one would be astounded to find that only 1977 general elections witnessed the highest poll ratio in the electoral history, which rose up to 52 per cent. All the other elections have miserable record of attracting less than one-third of total registered voters to the polling stations on the election day.
This clearly means that all the public representatives chosen in these elections reached the assemblies as a result of the choice of a minor portion of the total population of Pakistan, whereas major portion of the same population relaxed at home, perhaps simply enjoying the holiday.
The indifference to the electoral process has many concealed repercussions and the aftermath of such lethargy is always direr than we might expect.
Our casual lack of concern to going to polling stations and casting votes creates a vacuum that is readily filled in by the traditional contesting candidate who, by different means, brings forth his supporters to the polling station and consequently wins the election.
As per election laws, if a candidate bags only one vote in his favour out of 1,000 registered votes in a particular electoral constituency, while rest of the registered voters do not use their right, he would be announced winner no matter how weak this idea is.
The maximum voter participation in elections is, by every means, bound to produce more fruitful results and a positive change is only possible if all of us change our attitude towards national cause.
Simply saying that politics is a bad game played by bad people will never drag us out of the darkness and ignorance, and we can never enjoy the perks a pure democracy.In fact, we can never transform our country from pseudo-democracy into a pure democracy.
It is here we should understand the importance of election day.
We must cast our vote. We must shun behaving indifferently to the national cause. We must promise to vote for a candidate we deem the most sincere to the country in the coming general elections next year.
SAHITO ZAHEERKhairpur