Democracy must prevail

The National Letters

THE General Election 2022 is by far the most-ill prepared event this nation and its people have ever experienced.
So many issues surrounding transparency and accountability have undermined each citizen’s democratic right to participate in a free and fair election.
It seems democracy and all that comes with it does not mean a thing when it comes to elections.
Democracy entails the utmost respect of human rights
To those who are vested in political history will vouch for the fact that politics and politicians are two different worlds.
The integration of both worlds hasn’t been fruitful in terms of the demarcation between the democratic process and electoral process.
True democracy is manifested by the people of a country and the government’s mandate is to guide and facilitate proper paths that encourages equal participation.
This concept of democracy at present is marginalised by steep preferences that cannot promote equal participation.
This prompts the population to be defiantly violent.
The question is: Who pushes one to walk the fine line?
Democracy is atomised as “bottom-up”, not spiralling due to an ambiguous domino effect that is least embraced by the people’s constitutional beliefs.
The percentage threshold for equality of participation in the GE22 is an unjustifiable blow to fair voting.
Democracy is wholesome in its context against a fragmented election that doesn’t assure all right-thinking individuals that all is okay.
Provided are recommendations that are valid for a democratic process with regards to an election:

  • THE complete restructuring of the Electoral Commission of PNG functions in efficiency and responsibility;
  • THE conversion of urban settlements across PNG to provide for proper status of census data information;
  • THE complete restructuring of the NID card system before 2027; and,
  • REVIEWING the perimeters of the people’s constitutional rights against systemic deprivation to vote.

These points help protect the democratic process of elections and the constitutional rights of the people.
In conclusion, we are mere mortals with an expiry date of our earthly existence.

Mol Milla Mawang
Kulalai Pahoturi River