Demand of early elections

An importune for early elections is a constitutional demand of any democratic set up even if a government is about to complete its term.

In case there are clear signs that a government has lost its credibility, the holding of elections prior to the time increases trust in the electorate system.

It will not be out of place for the present government here to view course of an early option, particularly after extensive demands from the opposition parties. These parties include PML-N, the erstwhile allies in parliament and the JUI-F are demanding for early elections.

Criticism emanating from the opposition is sometimes dismissed by commentators as a game of political practice where a government’s achievements are being intentionally unnoticed to concentrate on its failures. Similar is in the case of the PPP-led government.

It makes a sense when a sizeable portion of the electorate comprised of political parties raised the voices for early polls.

However, it makes no sense when parties sitting outside the parliament are making noises for removal of the government and early polls. At the same time, a few of the politicians including hard-line nationalist parties may believe that the entire electoral exercise is needless.

It is vital to mention here that the members of these groups do not have broad-based support; the same cannot be said for those of mainstream political parties like the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamat-e-Islami.

It is vital to mention here the above mentioned two parties contested 2002 elections under a military dictator. However, they boycotted the 2008 polls what generally declared as free and fair polls.

Likewise every other girl, they too have a right to express their views and to publically articulate. However, there moral standing is quite weak as compared to the disgruntled politicians. Their demands can only be addressed with incredulity considering they themselves opted out of the 2008 electoral process.

Any demand for early elections is rooted in brinkmanship and unlawful reasoning miscarries and prove setback to the democratic setup. It takes decades to make a strong democratic culture.

If the politicians’ concerns about performance of the government are justified, the demand of early elections would do well to see democracy in a wider context.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jan 19 2012. Filed under National, Opinion, Pakistan, Politics, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.