Active citizenship: Only 19% of the population voted in the last elections
Out of the 80 million registered voters in Pakistan, only 34.6 million voted in the 2008 elections.
Thus, only 19.2% of the total population decided the future of the country - it emerged in a seminar on voter registration awareness at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Szabist) on Saturday.
By 2050, the working population is expected to reach 236 million, from 110 million in 2010, according to Faisal Malik, an investment banker by profession, but also a volunteer at Election Commission of Pakistan for raising voter awareness. He cited the Economic Survey of Pakistan and said that the labour force in the country was growing at a rate of 3.2 per cent per year. According to the survey, the population is growing at a rate of 2 per cent a year, which means that by 2050 the total population of the country will reach over 350 million.
The war on terror caused Pakistan a loss of $43 billion. “This burden has fallen on our shoulders,” declared Malik.
Television host Faisal Qureshi asked the students what they understood by the term democracy. “It’s a government elected by the people,” said a student. “It’s a government which you can hold accountable,” said yet another. According to Qureshi, democracy “was you, for you and by you.” He added that the duty of freedom is to respect different opinions. “When you are a slave you have to listen to a ruler,” he said. “But when you are free, you are free to hold yourself accountable and free to choose what is right and wrong.”
It is the duty of the government to provide security, education and infrastructure in a democracy, Qureshi said. There is no need to operate NGOs and do the government’s job yourself. What needs to be done is question them. The anchor said that the people tried voting for every political party so far. But, Imran Khan or even Obama cannot change anything if the people don’t speak up and question their public servants on their performance.
Another speaker, Alamgir Khan, an ex-student of Szabist, thought that taking ownership and not abstaining from voting was the way forward. But it is only possible when societies are educated and sensible enough to take a stand and are not disinterested.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2011.
COMMENTS (11)
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Democracy is the best revenge.
BTW why we need a democratic system; is it recommended by Islamic or Non-Islamic sources?
http://interestingabouteverything.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/is-democracy-a-solution/
When you don't cast a vote, you're actually casting an implicit vote for the person who least deserves to be elected. It is particularly important for the educated middle class to vote - since they are most likely to vote on issues and platforms rather than on personalities.
Of that 19%, 40 million (4 Cror) votes were declared bogus by EC/SC (Digg ECP website) I love the rehotric of phrase "public mendate", "will of people", "democracy is the way"... bla bla...
I opted for it, and I must pay for it (either by casting a vote or not casting a vote)
Then even, I am hopeful, the change is on its way.
One thing that I learned/liked about the article is that "Government" is not an alien body. It is by us for us and from us. So we need to be involved and do not leave it to crooks who plunder everything. Hope we not only vote in coming elections but take active interest by expressing our opinion and through peaceful assembly.
There was never anyone worth voting for. Ever considered that? Though now we should take it upon ourselves to encourage voter participation.
Out of those 19% half of the voters were fake means 9.5% voted. The down fall of Pakistan is because of our educated middle class who by not voting give free access to feudals and corrupt politicians to rule us. I request every single educated youth of 18 year to register him\herself to vote and VOTE for the people you like Your vote counts so go out in next elections and make sure to vote against people who just rule us to fill their pockets. For aa change you have to Vote
out of those 19% , 10% would be uneducated voters from rural areas. Educated people have left fate of the country in the hands of people who don't know what is the meaning of democracy.
i wish there was a system where only educated voters were able to select people into parliament (all those responsible for shaping countries major polices) while uneducated voters were allowed only into local body's election. then the shareefs, makhdooms, bhuttos, lagharis blah blah would have known what it takes to earn a single vote.
Anyone who uses total population has no idea what the are talking about. People under 18 are not allowed to vote, so why would you count them. The median age in Pakistan is 19. In other words about 50% of the population is too young to vote. If 80 million genuine voters are registered, that would mean a registration rate of about 80% (of adult citizens). That would be amongst the highest in the world (the US has a registration rate of 65%). Similarly, if there were actually 35 million legitimate votes, that would mean we had a turnout of about 30-35%, which is in line with world averages. Of course, in my opinion a lot of these votes are bogus, which is a whole different story.
Ive always voted in the elections i was eligible to vote in. Wish everyone else understood this little detail.
This is the reason, army pays no heed to democracy. When only 19% people understand their responsibility, it's alarming for a nation.