I have heard one strong view on the two recent power sharing deals we have seen in Kenya and Zimbabwe. People have argued that it sets a bad precedence that allows ruling parties to steal the vote and later appease the opposition by sharing power later on. This is a valid argument but I would also like to look at it from the other angle.
Recently we saw Michael Sata of Zambia declaring before people even cast their vote that he would not accept defeat at the hands of Rupia Banda. So now we have a scenario where even if ruling parties do get into power legitimately there will be opposition figures who will be hell bent on getting into power in the name of power sharing. We have to be on watch for greedy politicians on both sides, some people will not leave any stone unturned in an effort to get their hands on power.
In a related development on BBC Focus on Africa today there was a report that a lone man in a Nairobi pub was nearly kicked out after showing support for John McCain when nearly everyone else in the pub was chanting Obama's name. The person I was listening to the radio with went on to say 'And the Americans should not dare steal the vote in favour of John McCain. We will cause chaos on the streets of America. Tikanyauda konko! Adziwanso!'
I can only wish the Americans good luck in their voting.
I strongly agree that we should have a specification for suffrage, but I don't think that discriminating other people according to their education attainment would be the best way out. I think that using tax information would be more efficient than what we have now. I just think that we need a better way of keeping count of who is really voting and for those people running, they need to clearly state their platforms. We just don't want to have tirades amongst politicians.I understand how manipulative some politians can be, but I isn't that the polical game that all other nations play??
ReplyDeleteI just feel like multi-party democracy hasn't worked to the benefit of the working class in Malawi. Moving to totaritarian/communism, wouldn't be the best way out either. But yes I feel like Democracy in general works in nations that have high literacy rates and where good estimates on population data is available....... I like your topic and I also really wish we had absentee ballot....