"We Will Still Go Out To Vote With More Enthusiasm And Passion" - Rita Dominic

Nollywood actress, Rita Dominic has reacted to the postponement of the 2019 general elections by INEC.

She said 'we will still go out to vote with more enthusiasm and passion, we can't be stopped!'.

Elections help in solving leadership scramble. Most democratic nations exhibit high population hence most people want to be leaders. Therefore, people elect a representative government at a regular period such as five years. Thus, people participate in the election process where they elect their representatives in parliament and senate. These representative leaders have to look after their own people’s welfare to ensure unity, progress, and prosperity and ensure the integrity of the nation as a whole.

Secondly, people conduct an election to safeguard their freedom and rights. The destiny of a particular nation is vested on freedom and rights of people to scrutinize the government at the time as well as give better ways of solving problems through their representatives. Therefore, the people have the time to scrutinize their representatives and learn their interests in the public office hence only elect the most qualified leaders who can safeguard the freedom and rights for all. This choice of leadership henceforth favors only candidates who have views that conform to the opinions of the majority and reflect the will of the people at all times.

On a separate note, election process ensures a change in leadership. Citizens of a democratic nation normally have their voice and resentment against the ruling government hence they can vote for other parties to form a new government. Thus, they have the overall authority to ensure that the right party is in place. Besides, election enables citizens to participate in a political way. Election processes achieve this by opening avenues where people raise issues and present their views to the public. Through election, people can introduce reforms that are new to a party and can contest the election either as an independent or form a political party.

The election can be a platform of self-correction. This is typically carried out on a regular basis after every five years. The ruling government is usually kept in check hence can consider all the demands of the public. This is a form of the self-corrective mechanism whereby the party in power reviews its performance and appeases all its citizens.

Even though there are numerous advantages of the election in democratic nations, the majority of people especially in the developing countries have not fully realized such advantages. These people are not educated on the importance of choosing good leaders. Thus, they fall prey to selfish representatives who work for selfish gain for a five-year term and do nothing to the people and wait for the last minute and rush back with money to buy votes or coax voters with empty promises. The votes with time lose interest hence cause voter apathy or vote for the sake of forced democracy. Consequently, the leaders practice authoritarianism, autocracy which results to loss of aspirations for the citizens.

In conclusion, elections have greater impacts on developing strong democracies since people have an ultimate say in the right way they want to be governed. Besides, it brings about their rights and freedom as well as ensuring political participation as well as ensuring that they check the government at the time under check to ensure that all their demands are accomplished. However, some democratic nations do not follow this noble criterion. Instead, leaders elected are irresponsible and only go for their self-interests and opt for dictatorship, autocracy and forced democracy, and in the end, people lose hope on their democratic government.