Election Shams
By John Doe
A show election, also known as a sham election or rubber stamp election, is an election that is held purely for show, that is, without any significant political purpose. Show elections are a common event in dictatorial regimes that still feel the need to establish some element of public legitimacy.
Results predictably show nearly 100% voter turnout and nearly 100% support for the prescribed (often the only) list of candidates or for referendums that favor thepolitical party in power. Examples of such elections include elections in the Soviet Union, North Korea, and Baathist Iraq. A predetermined conclusion is always established by the regime, either through suppression of the opposition, coercion of voters, vote rigging, forged number of “votes received” (e.g., the State of Vietnam referendum, 1955), or some combination. In an extreme example Charles D. B. King of Liberia claimed he received 243,000 votes, which exceeded the number of eligible voters over 15 times.[1]
Ballots in a show election may contain only one “yes” option. In case of a simple “yes or no” question, people who pick “no” are often persecuted, thus making the “yes” choice the only option. For example. the elections in North Korea require a voter to publicly reject the official candidate. People are often coerced to vote. For example, people who voted in the election of the People’s Parliaments in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1940 received stamps in their passport. Those who did not have the stamp were persecuted as the “enemy of the people“.[2]
In some cases, show elections can backfire against the party in power, especially if the regime believe they are popular enough to win without coercion or fraud, e.g., in the Burmese general election, 1990 as well as the upcoming Nov 7th Elections.
Why does UMNO even bother having elections? With all these dead voters turning up, the 1.5million civil Servants (including the guranteed Postal Votes of the Military, RELA, Police, and other Govt-Linked Institutions), why not just declare Elections as “costing too much Public Money & Resources”, and go ahead, and declare UMNO the next Ruling Regime for the next 99years. Burma did it since 1990, and Singapore just gave the above reason for not having any by-elections.
UMNO wants itself to look as if it is Championing the “malays”, and yet the people who are raped the most (financially at least), are the very people they pretend to Champion. And then of course, there is the God factor. How can you argue against “God told me to tell you that….”.
The easiest way to keep a Population under it’s control, is to make sure that it is poor, and stupid. First, they would be too poor to bother arguing and fighting against the Govt. So, unless you have some “Thaksin who feeds the Red Shirts money to demonstrate at MBK”, no “poor and stupid person” would ever have time, or the resources to go on a demo. The second, is the simple fact that the stupid are too dumb to even realize that there is a better-life-out-there. The only exception which I know of, would be the Indonesians.
They are fantastic at organizing “Demos”. They have perfectly timed buses, which would transport the people in and out of Jakarta, with absolutely NO TRAFFIC JAMS, and all 10,000 or more people would arrive punctually, and orderly at the demo (at least at the start of it anyway). My question to them was this, “Wow, you are so professional at organization, and getting things done accurately & correctly and no one is late for a demonstration, but how come no one can do this on regular workday?”
Well, elections are coming again. PKR has an internal pissing-contest, and UMNO is going to win again. Why not just declare that “Elections are costly. Therefore no more elections until the year 3011” and be done with it?
In my best Manglish, “Oi ! UMNO ! No balls to announce this ah?”
