Thursday, November 7, 2024

Politicians should be the last to feign surprise at low voter turnout!

The last few years have seen a near catastrophic collapse of public trust on politics and politicians alike.

The public trust of politics and politicians is as formidable as it is unmistakable.
And that is dangerous.

This venomous loathing is a direct result of dishonour on the part of politicians.
There is something very disturbing, possibly illegal, with the way politicians from across the divide are conniving and conspiring among themselves to take the voting public for granted.

Gone are the days when politicians were looked at as legitimate guardians of public morality.
On the one hand, we have a political opposition that has essentially reduced itself to a tottering wreck.

On the other is a ruling party that continues to be mercilessly arrogant in its misuse and abuse of public money and trust; cold, contemptuous and aloof.

The voting public is caught in between; hopeless, helpless and with no meaningful alternative to look up to for salvation.
Hurt and disillusioned the voters have now taken to a collective decision to stay at home and stop voting.

Our democracy is hanging on the rails.
To ordinary people, politics has become synonymous with telling lies.
The excitement and euphoria that politics used to bring to the fore has simply ceased to exist.
The tragedy is that people no longer regard politics as a vehicle through which they can change governments, influence public police and, more importantly, improve their lives.

This is the only plausible explanation behind a wide public disillusionment with BDP ÔÇô a disillusionment which to everyone’s surprise has not brought about any corresponding public enthusiasm for the opposition. It is a shocking collapse of faith.
Put in simpler terms, voter apathy means that people are no longer prepared to accept entreaties from any of the contending parties for they are looked at as two faces of the same coin.
It’s a scary quandary we are going to have to live with for some time.

The solution, however, lies in bringing back trust and restoring integrity to the trade of politics.
The solution lies in mounting what would amount to a ruthless clean up campaign.
Like a wounded wolf, the IEC has been ranting that fewer and fewer people are coming forward to register.

To more than all of us, elections no longer present any form of excitement.
People no longer wish to be a part of a charade that passes for a democracy.

Feeling betrayed and abused, voters reckon the only weapon at their disposal is to stay away.
Many of our people have not only lost interest in politics, they have also effectively disengaged themselves from what they rightly interpret as a farce.

The voters no longer want to give legitimacy to a process that, in the end, brings power to people who care little about their aspirations.
Thanks to a total disregard of issues that matter to the electorate, all political parties have now come to closely resemble each other.
The voters are all the cleverer to lump all the parties as one.

To ordinary people, it no longer matters which party wins for they all are the same.
The IEC has been churning out advert after advert exhorting people to go out to register.
The results have so far been disappointing, to say the least.

By-elections results hint that the worst is still to come.
Popular revulsion against politicians and anything political seems poised to soar.
Politics has taken a plunge and it will be interesting to see how politicians are going to save the situation.

Politics is a fractured vocation and no amount of spin, however vehement, will restore the lost integrity.
Politicians have done more damage to contaminate a craft which, for its survival, relies most on trust than anything else.
They should be the last to feign surprise at low voter turnouts.

Instead of endlessly lamenting low voter turn out, politicians should shine the light within. Only then will they see how voters are naturally and instinctively reacting to what has been a reckless perversion of politics by its supposed custodians.
The fact that voters are now choosing to stay home (their last refuge) in the face of an extensive propaganda campaign to entice them to the polls should be a reminder to all of us that public toleration of manipulation has its limits.
For far too long, politicians have thrived and survived on false pretences, duping and hoodwinking the people.
They have cheapened politics and they are paying the price.

From the beginning to the end, the blame lies with the politicians themselves.
Unless they come to terms with reality, their tainted existence will have to continue.

First, they failed to take themselves seriously.
Then they moved on to take the voters for granted.
Politicians should accept the sad reality that before the voters return to the booths, there has to be a feeling that the politicians are talking and acting on behalf of the voters.

Before then, any attempt, including by IEC, to attract people to the polls is a lost cause.

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