The question of voter participation in the upcoming presidential elections has become as important an issue as that of the candidates in the contest.
Official reports indicate only between 42 and 51 percent of the 48 million eligible voters are likely to cast their ballot.
Of course one cannot depend entirely on political forecasts and pre-poll election surveys since, like the weather, the voter can also be subject to vagaries (of the electoral kind) and the mood of the people can be swayed even a few days prior to the election, if the right incentives to vote are created.
It should be pointed out that there have been several examples in other countries, including democracies, where the people’s verdict on election day, was poles apart from judgments of opinion polls conducted by the media and government bodies.
How the electoral turnout will be on June 17 no doubt would to a large extent be determined by the faith and confidence of the people in the candidates to perform and deliver and how accountable or true to their word the governments have been in the past.
As a rule, an election stirs up a lot of interest and excitement long before the vote is cast. In any politically aware society, debates and discussions over government policies and performance run on for days and weeks as various sections of the society mull over the right choice for the top national jobs.
Thus an election puts all democratically-elected bodies directly in the ’hot seat’ as government performance is under scrutiny by the elite, the business class, the intelligentsia, and of course the masses.
Each of these sections would definitely assess how much government policies have impacted their lives and helped improve their lot, before exercising their franchise.
The right to choose is a basic political right of any sane, adult human being. It is not just a constitutional duty. The ballot is a powerful instrument to make or break governments and by exercising this right the people can make their representatives in the legislature or government to eat humble pie if they have failed to perform. On the other hand by abstaining from the ballot too they can show their disapproval and take the nation’s electoral authority to task for any foul play in selection of candidates. Election-day is thus a chance to “get back“ at the government or people’s representatives for their failures or to give them high marks for their performance.
Voter participation is indeed imperative to make an election successful. But an unusually low voter turnout would mean that the people are neither happy with the candidates nor the performance of the elected bodies.
Unfortunately if one sees the trend in Iran, there is a growing apathy to national elections as people’s participation in the polls in the past nearly one decade has shown signs of lethargy. Voter turnout, which peaked in the presidential elections eight years ago, has since then been on the decline with sections of the electorate in both urban and rural centers staying away from the ballot box.
The people want to be part of the political process just as they want the nation to be part of the international mainstream. They want accountability and transparency in government work. They want their fair share in the economic prosperity that only some sections are enjoying. They want solutions to problems of unemployment, poverty, high prices, social inequality and other problems begging attention.
It is high time the powers-that-are do some introspection to see why the people are increasingly shunning the ballot boxes. If policies have to change so be it.