Friday is Namibia's general election, and has been declared a public holiday (was the last election day a public holiday?) , Anyway, the day is a Friday, and coupled with the fact that it falls at the end of the month, the temptation may be to utilise your hard earned pay packet to do some plentiful 'shopping' at the local bottle store, and head off for a pre-Christmas long weekend - maybe just you and your special other, not all the extended family and kids whom you will have next month.
You are quite entitled to do that, and I wish everyone a great weekend anyway, but, should you hopefully be registered on the voters' roll, please cast your vote first. Just a week or so ago, there was a bye-election in Windhoek West, where the winner was elected on a 12% turnout. Please be advised, our fighters for democracy did not put their lives on the line for the sake of 88% 'no-shows' or 'don't cares'.
For those cynics who say that their single vote doesn't matter, recall the infamous 2000 US election, where, after weeks of confusion and re-counts, it appeared that George W. Bush won by a margin of 9 votes in a nation of nearly 300 million. We all know what happened thereafter - 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq etc etc.
Of course, the Namibian election will not be so close, but even, as often happens in new African democracies, where there is a hugely dominant ruling party, and a weak opposition, one must vote anyway.. Even if you are an opposition supporter, totally disillusioned by the fragmentation and triviality of the so-called opposition parties, where such parties often seem to consist of little more than three initials, a flag, the leader, and his dog, you should turn up and put your paper in the box, or press the button on the voting machine, as the case may be. When you get turnouts of 80%+, governments have to listen, and it is much better than street riots, as in the case of Burkino Faso. 12% turnouts mean the slow, or not so slow, death of democracy.
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