THE International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance informed us that ‘Despite the growth in the global voter population and the number of countries that hold elections, the global average voter turnout has decreased significantly since the early 1990s.

Global voter turnout was fairly stable between the 1940s and the 1980s, falling only slightly from 78 per cent to 76 per cent over the entire period. It then fell sharply in the 1990s to 70 per cent, and continued its decline to reach 66 per cent in the period of 2011–15’ (Report: Voter Turnout Trends Around the World). The global percentile for voter turnout is 66 per cent according to this report. I will not profess to be a psephologist but that does not bar me from concluding that this is a worrying trend.

This percentile translates into a simple situation where about 100,000 to 1,000,000 people on the day of their national elections, stay at home to disregard the electoral process. Some may wish to argue that the politicians created this apathy by their actions but the eligible voters who decline to register their concerns at the ballot box, are no better than the bad politicians they so despise.

There was a time in the world when the ordinary woman/man had no say in the running of the affairs of the state. This lack of say was responsible for the most arrogant display of power by men and women in history, best exemplified during the times of high absolutism. During the days of high absolutism in Europe, William of Prussia once thundered to a crowd of supplicants, ‘ Your salvation belongs to Lord, everything else you do, is my business’.

Equally demonstrable of the point I am about to make, is the case of Catherine the Great of Russia who once odiously professed, ‘I shall be an autocrat: that is my trade and the good lord shall forgive me: that is his’. How about Louis X1V of France who professed, ‘It is law because i wish it”. I have documented these cases of complete arrogance in power in a time when the right to vote was nonexistent to now proceed to the central point, citizens who do not exercise their right to vote can encourage and breathe the abuse of power at the expense of other citizens who are more engaged.

Refusing to vote is arguably the most selfish decision any citizen can make for several reasons; the right to vote has been a long hard and arduous battle to achieve, once you refuse to vote, you have lost the right to complain and equally important, your refusal to vote affects the quality of life your fellow citizens will or will not receive.

History adequately demonstrates that the right to vote was always subjected to class, race and gender considerations. This was not an automatic birthright it did not simply mean having a passport or an Identification Card. The right to vote was reserved for those born into privilege and authority, it depended on the lottery of birth. This right had to be gained with bloody and revolutionary struggle.

This is sadly but unavoidably epitomised in the story of groups such as the Suffragettes, the movement to secure the right for women to vote. It took much activism at risk of life and limb for women such as Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney to procure the right for women to vote. Further, this was achieved against the backdrop of imprisonment, arson, fires, disrupting political speeches, property damage and civil disobedience.

This resulted in women being able to vote in the US in 1920 and during the 1930s and 1940s across Europe. For a citizen to sit and whimsically dismiss the right to vote as a facetious and pointless exercise, flies in the face of the blood, sweat and tears and monumental sacrifices made by so many over centuries. To just sit and flippantly discard this sacred duty is blasphemous and as I have mentioned ad nauseam, extremely selfish.

Refusing to vote means that you have whisked away your sovereign power as a citizen, you have thrown away a potent weapon to advocate on any issue. The Guyana Constitution gives sovereign power to the masses, to the people who have the final and ultimate say.

Rejecting this duty, in my estimation, automatically strips you of the right to complain about any issue in the post-election period. If you wake up in the post-election period after having refused to vote, just zip it up and accept all that is done in the exercise of power. If the drains are not clean or someone in power abuses their authority, you have zero moral high ground to submit a complaint. I respectfully submit in this column that this duty to vote is so important, nations have introduce laws with punitive measures to ensure citizens exercise their franchise, this is compulsory in most countries globally.

This is no accident it underscores the cataclysmic consequences of foregoing this undertaking. It does not matter how apathetic and cynical you become about your electoral process, even to a point of indifference, there is no excuse for not voting. You can claim all the rights you wish, this right is arguably the most important. Having refused to vote, to then baulk at any issue in your society in the post-electoral period is like crying to dessert or barking at a flying bird.

I have posited that the reluctance to report to the ballot box is self-centered, it is even more accentuate when your decision has an impact on your fellow citizens. If bad governance is afflicted upon the people and the masses use the democratic process to repel bad governance and utilise or exploit every channel available to do same and some citizens, in their indifference, decline to get that ink on their finger on voting day, the work of their fellow citizens becomes null and void.

Your rejection of the democratic process is often at the expense of your fellow citizens. A high voter turnout is the starkest sign of a healthy democracy and engaged citizens, this normally breeds or encourages good governance. It is an act of civic duty to say where you stand on the issue of who will exercise authority over you during an electoral cycle. I remain steadfastly unapologetic in my view -the refusal to vote is arguably the most selfish decision any citizen can make.