In democratic countries citizens can vote during local governments, parliaments or Presidents elections. Politics usually say that it is citizens duty to take part in elections, because society must take responsibility for things that happens in their country (In my case - Lithuania, while i live here) by choosing right politics. But can we name elections fully democratic? Can Your vote change political situation or maybe elections are only an option (Vote if You want, or don't vote at all)?
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| Plenty of people were arrested and suffered injuries during rally in 2009. Democracy? |
For example in Lithuania there are lot's of political parties and they give rankings to their members (usually loyal, but not competent), and people who are 18+ during voting time can give ranks to politics, but if you leave empty gaps in place there you should rank politics, it means your votes goes to political parties members who are highly ranked. And this is the key moment that helps politics that are criticized to stay on top! How can 70+ years old people give rankings if they have vision problems? (I think it's normal to have vision problems when You are old). They can't be helped by volunteers or any other because of possibility to influence their choice. I have participated as a volunteer once (who watched if elections goes without breaking laws) and saw that plenty of old people came to vote and they were not available to read the list of political parties members . That means choosing a political party is the main challenge for them but choosing politic is almost impossible. So You can be too young to vote, but never too old, because old people make "right" decisions by leaving empty gaps and giving (not directly) votes to leaders of political parties. I am not against old people voting, but if voting on the internet would be possible, relatives could help parents or grand parents to vote, and not only more votes would be received, but it also would be quality votes in elections. I know that politics says that internet voting is not secure, but during local governments voting in Lithuania (2015) there were plenty of violations. In fact in some regions voting results has been canceled. The possibility to cheat exists in real life and also internet, but if people will have more options to vote, more motivation they will have to participate in elections.
I have discussed several problems with voting (political parties ranking, only real voting possibility) but to conclude i would say that in democratic country should not be used "HAS TO", only "CAN TO", because everything in free society should happen by free will, and if You don't see right politics, You can simply go to the pub and drink beer instead of going to elections. It's Your choice that has to be respected in real democracy.
