For Election 2013 Voters have
to aware about the importance of participating in the electoral process as a way
to ensure a responsive, accountable and democratically elected government. In a
democracy, a free and fair vote is the fundamental tool through which citizens
can express their political preferences and developmental wishes. However, in
representative forms of democracies, merely casting the vote may not be adequate
to hold the elected officials and the executive accountable or to foster a
responsive and transparent government. Therefore, providing voters with
information on the electoral process, political parties and their manifestos,
poll antecedents of the candidates etc. are necessary to educate them prior to
the polling day is critical to enable them cast an enlightened and informed
vote. Awareness about Election aims to precisely do that i.e. to provide such
critical information and in doing so, create better-informed, more motivated
citizenry and, ultimately, a more responsive, transparent and accountable
government.
The awareness of Election 2013 can be conducted by any community or civil
society organization, by adapting the methodology to the local socio-political
context with the following as objectives at its core:
Ensure access to information to help people make an informed choice.
Increase awareness of the election process and of voter rights.
Help ensure that the issues of citizen concern are part of the campaign agenda.
Promotion of candidates who will be responsive and accountable.
Provide particular support to promote the participation of women and
marginalized groups.
Create an environment conducive to for holding free and fair elections, with a
focus on maximum participation of citizens.
Act as a watchdog of electoral practices, to ensure there is no electoral
manipulation, corruption, or violence.
In democracies, there are various levels of governments such as local,
provincial/regional and national, voted to power, often in separate elections.
Since issues and challenges at these levels are different from one another, it
is also needs to be specifically designed for each level. Prior to initiating
plans for the conduct workshops or seminars, it is advisable to analyze the
local political and cultural context and to plan a campaign that is practical
and will appeal to a large segment of the population.
Those areas have a low literacy rate, then it is important to use more of
audio-visual techniques and less of print media for disseminating electoral
information. A deeper knowledge of the local context will also help assess the
extent of electoral malpractices such as proxy-voting, vote-buying,
booth-capturing, dummy-candidates, existing forms of political patronage. Voter
has to realize that your vote is your vice, and it can bring revelation in
Pakistan and it is our responsibility takes a part on general Election 2013.