Topic: Electoral Violence and Intimidation
Country: Greece
Delegate Name: Anna Weber
School: Mattawan High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Greece position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
The object of democracy is to allow everyone an equal opportunity to express his own opinion through voting. In many countries, people are losing their freedoms because of electoral violence. Freedom of assembly and freedom of association are vital to the success of a democracy, yet these freedoms have, in some places, been violated. The intimidation by the bigger party must be stopped immediately. In order to be legitimate, an election must be honest and fair. Violence must not become a tactic available for use by competing parties.
If the violence and intimidation are allowed to continue, the elected officials will be people of questionable character who will have been raised up by violence. It is not reasonable to hope that voters will not submit to the pressure to vote a certain way when violence is involved; if their lives or families have been threatened, changing their vote would not be a large price to pay for safety. The trend towards violence must be halted at all costs. We cannot allow our leaders to be people so ambitious that they would put the lives of many in danger simply to be on the "top of the heap."
If violence, corruption, or dishonesty are suspected in an election, measures must be taken to redo the election with stricter controls. Generally electoral intimidation takes place in the open, in the form of violent protests or hate crimes. Stricter controls must, in this case, be implemented to ensure that an election is fair. Police should be stationed near polling places to supervise and intervene in violent situations. Increased media coverage of the problem could also be helpful to flush out the less obvious dishonesty.
All countries that choose their officials by a vote should realize that allowing electoral violence or intimidation is hypocritical and dangerous.
