The power of X ...
With today being local government elections day I thought something political to be appropriate, which is completely unlike me, but these are two issues that irk me no end and have to get off my chest.
1. Why bother voting? What difference can it make? What's the point?
Every time elections come around and I hear so called "intelligent" people making this statement my blood starts to boil. Every vote for a party dilutes or strengthens the power no matter by how much or how little.
If nobody other than the "in-power" supporters voted then they'd have 100% majority giving them the right to do whatever they wanted to do; I am sure we can all agree that this is not a favorable condition to be in for any truly democratic society.
Remember if you do not vote you have absolutely no right to whinge and complain when you don't get the government that you want. So the next time you complain that there is no service delivery, or that crime is out of control, or that you cannot get work, or that you have no electricty again, or that your garbage has still not been collected, or some other govt official has stolen more money and abused his/her position, or, or, or ... ask yourself did you do what you could to prevent it from happening?
2. I am going to boycott these elections to make a statement.
This second category of people is perhaps even worse than the first. People have spent years battling in "the struggle" and now that they finally have the right to cast their vote and have a say they decide to boycott the very thing they fought so hard for ... for what? to make a statement? Do you really think anybody in power will care if you do not vote? I don't think so ... obviously you were not gonna vote for them anyways so it's just one less vote for their opposition, so acutally you're doing them a FAVOR!
This is where voter education is this country is so very much lacking! Come on IEC, go out there and do your jobs ... educate the people on what voting and democracy is all about.
I was speaking to somebody the other day who said; "I am not going to vote because the <name of party removed to protect the guilty> has done nothing for me!" So why don't you go vote for somebody else then? Even if you are entirely dispondent with ALL the candidates, which is likely, a vote against the majority might see them losing a stronghold they once held, which will hopefully give them a wakeup call for the next round of elections.
So with all that off my chest I'm off to go cast my vote ...
Come on people, go vote! It's your right ... no actually it is your DUTY!
The opinions expressed in this post are merely my opinions, which is another of my rights in a democratic society...If you don't agree with me, that's also your right.