Choosing conscientiously, everyone's duty

By: Pedro Corzo - 17/07/2024

Guest columnist.
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The tireless time brings us closer every day to the date on which we must choose the new president of this nation. It is always a difficult and complicated selection and when the world is convulsed as it is at present, the task is more arduous.

It has never been easy for me to elect a public servant, much less the president, perhaps, because it was a privilege that I accessed well after the age of fifty and I assume it with great responsibility. In Cuba, I never had that opportunity, Castro's totalitarianism has been very efficient in restricting that right like all the others.

Choosing public servants gives us a great responsibility, which is why we must carefully inform ourselves of our options. Voting based on a candidate's physical appearance, sympathy, skin color, sex, national origin or religion is a serious mistake. The most capable person should be chosen and who can show the best record of public service to their constituents.

For their part, voters must be upright citizens. People who respect the law, who fulfill their civic obligations. The universal prerogative that to elect a political leadership one must be a national of the country being elected is a more than necessary mandate; the voter must be identified with the nation as a whole and not be alien to its commitments.

Politics is a key activity in society. No citizen should be alien to it, turning one's back on this vital public management, irremediably leads to the loss of citizen rights, which is the end of life in democracy. It is true that Law and Order are the basic pillar of coexistence, but only democratic management allows these two conditions to achieve the necessary equity and the preservation of the enjoyment of Freedom.

Political campaigns should be conducted with greater responsibility just as citizens assisted with the privilege of choosing should pay more attention to electoral laws and the authorities of that sector. It is not a trivial task to choose a person.

What has been happening with the Venezuelan, Bolivian and Nicaraguan electoral jurisdictions has allowed these regimes to legitimize fraud, a temptation to which bureaucrats of any latitude can be subject, hence, we must demand very clear and universal rules in the that no faction can have advantages and inflate the electoral registry at its whim and convenience as has happened in the aforementioned countries, without them being the only ones.

Electing the president of the United States is an important action. The American president has a host of responsibilities that go far beyond the borders of this nation, consequently, his voters bear the responsibility of having chosen an individual who is going to make important decisions that will transcend our confines and potentially affect conditions. of lives of people we don't know.

Representative democracy with all its imperfections gives us the opportunity to elect our rulers, a prerogative that does not distinguish many countries, while, in other nations, it is nothing more than a fiction, as is the case in Russia, China and Iran, to mention three states. authoritarian ones in which citizens pretend to choose and governments direct the farce.

It is true that in democratic states elections are not usually perfect. There can be manipulation, electoral machines that do not respect the rights of others, mismanagement and even corruption in the electoral exercise, which forces us to be alert and ready to defend our rights. Let bad citizens contaminate the elections. It is the same as allowing thieves to enter our homes and destroy them at will.

The act of voting, when carried out within a framework of political pluralism, in secret, in an environment of complete transparency and free of coercion, is, despite its probable faults, the best method for electing our leaders. It is true that they can disappoint us due to their poor management, hence the importance of preserving the ability to replace them in a new election.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».