A Case of Rare Observations and Countless Lessons
UK GOVERNMENT welcomed various leaders from around the world mainly under the banners of the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to observe how elections are done British style. The entourage was made up of groups of MPs from Jamaica, Ghana, Rwanda, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and one Mr. Ababu Namwamba as the sole representative from myKenyan parliament. Nonetheless, it was not just the teams on the ground that would end up enjoying close follow-up on the historic test on one of the world's oldest democracies. The fame of the country coupled with the first ever televised debates between Labour's Gordon Brown, Conservative's David Cameron and Lib Dem's Nick Clegg made sure that the whole world was swept along.
Rare Observations
Even in my own distant obseravation I managed to spot a rather one of a kind scenario at the vote casting stage. It became clear that in the UK voters are not necessarily required to produce any form of identification in order to have a say in the ballot. As long as their names and addresses exist on the voters roll they are a free people to participate in the elections. UK also have a very decentralised electoral system and this is because election officials work under local authorities. Staff at each and every polling station is also very small. And my comparative research readings tell me that the composition is as small as one polling clerk and one presiding officer. However, electoral commission assures all doubtful voices that there are adequate stand-by officers that may be rushed in at any polling station experiencing any form of emergency. Anather rather rare observation in the British electoral landscape is total inexistence of a national voters roll. The only rolls present are local registers at constituency level and the responsibility of maintaning them lies solely and squarely with the 164 local authorities across the country.
Unlike in many democracies around the world, in the UK one is actually free to register as a voter at more than one polling stations even though deterrence against double or tripple voting is totally unclear in the country's electoral regurlations. Postal ballots which the ten year old electoral commission sometimes send upon recieving orders from voters who wish to recieve them some people (me included) do fear stand a chance of being corruptible. And a similar high profile fear came in 2008 on the backdrop of UK 2005 General Elections from the Council of Europe. The council wrote: ''The UK's rather arcane system of voter registration combined with postal voting on demand means that the UK delivers democratic elections despite the vulnerabilities in the electoral system.''
Finally, the British community may also want to rethink their current system whereby one party is actually able to govern with minority mandate. Back in 2005 Labour Party managed to get 55 per cent of the parliamentary seats on a 35 per cent share of total votes cast. While in this year's elections, the Conservatives managed a 36 per cent share of all votes cast but still had to seek reinforcement from the Lib Dems in order to govern.
Lessons To Young Democracies
A young democracy that I'm 100 per cent familiar with is my homeland Kenya. So before constituting any list of lessons from the UK to any young democracy it is important that I first contrast Kenyan style of politics and the British one. Here in my motherland I'm afraid contenders in a presidential race still regard and treat each other as real enemies. This makes political campaigns full of unrealistic defamation and mudslinging – the type I did not see in the UK elections. That sort of unfortunate behavour have perenially made it hard for opponents to work together in, let's say, a coalition government. Right now David Cameron and Nick Clegg are only able to co-rule smoothly despite their completely different ideologies just because they did not loose respect for each other during their campaigns. Certainly these leaders of mine that I still hate to hate need to shade off the culture of excess propaganda and defamation and begin to put on that of selling nothing other than what their party manifestos say the same manner Britons did.
Another great feature in the UK electoral landmap is high level of faith that both politicians and voters have in their electoral commission. In my frequent shifts from one news channel to another, not once did I notice even a single police officer at any polling station. This is a direct opposite to what usually happen right here in Kenya and most of young democracies across the world where on elections day polling stations become no different from army barracks. In Kenya in particular the army and the police are normally part of a campaign to intimidate voters and a wider plot to rig the final elections outcome.
Additional Information
Out of 650 parliamentary seats the Conservative Party won 306 while Labour and Lib Dems won 258 and 57 respectively. All the remaining seats went to smaller parties. However to constitute a government in the UK a party needs at least 325(+1) parliamentary seats – a mark no any given single party managed to reach in this year's elections. The resulting situation is known as a 'Hung Parliament'. And a similar case happened way back in 1974 when Edward Heath – a Tory tried constituting a government with a minority of 297 parliamentary seats and 37.9 per cent of the popular vote. He however failed to sway Lib Dems to his side thereby forcing him to give way to Labour leader Harold Wilson with his 301 parliamentary seats and 37.2 per cent of the popular vote.
Note: This compilation is generally based on my personal observation of the 2010 UK General Elections. However some conclussions are reached after comparative perusals of a number of books, newspapers and internet files.
