By Amb. Dr. Ahmed Kiwanuka
If, in the course of this year's elections, it is believed that laws related to elections have ceased to operate, then the belief is quite wrong. When election laws cease to operate, you have the law of the jungle. During elections, people generally take advantage of enjoying benefits derived from acts of breaking the law, like stuffing fake votes into ballot boxes, and manipulating statistical data. Political parties, especially those in power, usually enjoy the occurrence of such opportunities. However, all election misdeeds which occur under any such pretext are misguided.
Democracy is all about competition, fairness and equality. The law governing the entire process must not only be observed; but must be seen to be binding by all and sundry. Voters and observers should, in their reasonable numbers, be convinced that the elections were free and fair so as to give credence to them. For some people, elections are a simple civic duty, while for others, and indeed the whole nation, they are a matter of life and death. However, both these stances have to be accepted, tolerated and possibly guided. After all, democracy is nothing but the mathematics of diversity and competitiveness. The end result is the JKL temporary armistice, because the end of one election is the beginning of the next one.
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