Democracy is not just about voting

By Lim Mun Fah

The Cabinet has agreed to use the indelible ink in the next general election.

From a democratic point of view, it is indeed a step forward. However, it is actually only a small step forward towards a more transparent and fair electoral system, as instead of just about voting, the implications of a democratic election are actually very wide and complex.

Voting seems easy to be done as it only requires voters to draw an "X" next to their preferred candidate before throwing the voting paper into a ballot box.

In fact, it is not as simple as that.

Election is a bottom-up mobilisation. The whole process is tense and complicated. It involves arguments from politicians of different political stands, consideration over benefit tunnelling, entanglements among political parties and confrontations among candidates.

To be specific, a democratic election process must reflect the spirit of democracy. Firstly, all adult citizens have the rights to vote and be voted. Secondly, one man must cast only one vote in an election and the role and effectiveness of each vote must be equal, without being affected by personal identity.

Thirdly, it must be a fair competition in which all candidates are refrained by the same set of election rules and must obey the principle of majority rule. Fourthly, voting is secret and thus, voters' choices in an election are anonymous, so that they can record a sincere choice without being affected by threat and bribery. Fifthly, the counting process must be transparent and being completed and announced under the supervision of a neutral.

To put it simple, a democratic election must generate new lawmakers and government through a democratic, fair, free and transparent process.

Theoretically, it is the advantages of democracy. It allows people to elect and change their government. However, since those in power also has the power to set election rules, the so-called fairness, freedom, transparency and other basic principles of a democratic election can hardly be implemented in political reality. In many cases, a democratic election is democratic, fair, free and transparent only for a particular party.

There is no political power that does not wish to retain its power in the world. Power is fascinating, but at the same time, terrible. It involves too much of benefit distributions and thus, many political parties and politicians are taking the advantage of loopholes found in the election game and try to win political power to enjoy the benefits it brings.

Voting is only part of a democratic election after all. In addition to it, an election could also be affected by other factors, including constituency demarcation, voter registration, election resources allocation and the control over election machinery.

Therefore, after making the small step forward, they must continue to move forward to further improve our democratic election!