When best-selling author Sharon Salzburg was asked why she always voted, she replied that “voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, to one another, to our country and to the world”.
Voters’ turnout in Malta is among the highest in Europe, standing at just over 92 per cent in the 2017 general election, while the 2019 local and European elections saw a turnout of 72 per cent.
Voter participation is the essence of democracy. Opponents of democracy do all in their power to try to negate the right to vote, either to the population as a whole or specifically the part of the population that is likely to vote against their party or candidate.
If recent opinion polls are anything to go by, the next election in Malta is likely to set a most unwanted record: that of the lowest turnout since independence.
The right to vote is not only a privilege, it’s a duty. Not having an opinion on how your country is run borders on dereliction of one’s civic duty. It sends the wrong message to politicians, especially those in government. By not voting, a person is essentially saying: “Do what you like because I really don’t care. I am not that bothered about my own future, my country’s future, that of my children, my family and friends.”
Abstaining from casting one’s vote is giving a carte blanche to politicians to do as they like because, at the end of the day, the only meaningful way to give a clear message to a politician – be it a government minister, a backbencher or a member of the opposition – is to cast your vote.
One excuse I’ve heard ad nauseum for not voting is that both parties are the same. This is a lie, reiterated time and time again by people who are on the receiving end of an endless stream of state-funded propaganda. Events in the last few years, especially since the last election, have shown that that is an argument that is absolutely and categorically untrue.
Our country is at a crossroads- Emma Portelli Bonnici
The past five years have been a collectively traumatic experience for our country. The murder of one of our foremost journalists, rampant corruption, the total destruction of the environment and the creation of a ruling class. Here I include not only elected politicians but the cabal of CEOs, directors supposedly running our public entities, who are in office to corruptly enrich themselves, their friends and families and the politicians who appoint them to these positions of ‘trust’.
Our electoral system, known as proportional representation with a single transferable vote, allows voters not only to choose which party to vote for but also to choose which candidate to represent them in parliament. Daphne Caruana Galizia once wrote: “Good people vote to keep bad people out of power.” Use your vote to choose people you know will truly represent you.
Our country is at a crossroads. What has happened in the past five years, and, to a certain extent, in the four years prior to those, is the stuff of nightmares. Every deal struck by this government reeks of corruption. Unqualified and incompetent people are placed at the helm of government entities.
The protection of our environment, both urban and rural, has been abandoned to allow money hungry developers to make more millions for themselves, leaving tens of thousands of Maltese people living in poverty. Our economy is in tatters. We are currently greylisted by the FATF.
To quote Caruana Galizia once more, “Whatever our personal feelings are, our private animosities or our dislike or this one or that one, our grudges and our real or perceived wounds, now is the time to set all that aside and pull the same rope, bearing in mind that we have a duty and an obligation to root out the corrupt and the scandalous and work together to remove the danger.”
Only your vote can fix this mess. Use it and use it wisely.
Emma Portelli Bonnici, lawyer and PN candidate